When Darkness Turns to Light
by KLil31
Summary: I never really found Until Dawn to be fair to the characters that I love the most; the Washington girls. So in this story/ AU everyone gets a chance at survival. Rated T for language, very intense scenes later on and potentially gore. Updated once every two weeks or weekly depending on how busy I get.
1. One Slight Change

Chapter One: One Slight Change

Authors Notes: My first chapter of my first Fanfic. The reason I wrote this is basically because my favorite AU is where Hannah and Beth live and there aren't too awful many as is. I didn't really give much thought other than that so I hope you enjoy and if you do please consider rating, and if you don't please give constructive criticism in the comments. Toxicity is to be expected but won't be tolerated none the less. KLil out!

 **Boom, butterfly effect.** It's funny how such simple words stated by one friend to another can have such a larger meaning than what is known between the two. The butterfly effect states that a butterfly flapping its wings can cause a hurricane weeks later. Well this change has to do with butterflies as well, but not if it flaps its wings but what color a tattoo of one is. Hannah chose a white tattoo instead of a black one because she knew about Native American lore since she has gone up to the mountain so many times as a child. And due to this she knew that a black butterfly symbolizes death. This one choice has changed everything.

 **427 Days Until Dawn.** "Hannah I don't know if this is a good idea." Said Hannah's sister Beth. They were sitting in Beth's car preparing to get Hannah's tattoo.

"That's the whole point Beth!, the article said to do something reckless to get his attention and I can't very well run away from home so this is the next best thing!".

"And by him I'm sure you mean Mr. Class Principle dream boat Mike Munroe?" Hannah blushes profusely. "Fuck off Beth, I love him, there's more to him than meets the eye you'll see!"

"Ok I see I touched a nerve sorry Han, and if you're sure about this tattoo I won't be the one to stop you, have you thought of a color?"

"Hm… I have it narrowed down to white and black, but I did read in a book at the lodge once that black butterflies represent death so I'll go with white!"

"White it is haha, now let's go get that tattoo!" The two drive off to the tattoo parlor to get Hannah her tattoo, a seemingly harmless endeavor but one that will change the course of events throughout the story exponentially.

Author's Notes Ending: Well here's Chapter One. I know it's a slow start but I figured a bit of context would help. Also I couldn't find an exact time for when Hannah gets her tattoo so I made up a time. Also it's really useful that the last names for the other characters were released so I don't have to make them up since that could take a while. Hope you guys enjoyed and see you all next time.


	2. A Prank Gone Awry

Chapter Two: A Prank Gone Awry

Authors Notes: Chapter Two is here! Well… not here while I'm writing it but here by the time you read it. That's a totally different story so let's move on. Back to this specific story, I'm sorry to say I can't figure out how to respond to reviews at the moment. Except for the one which counts as the "review" of the chapter, which doesn't make ANY sense at all since I am logged into my account so the website should know that I am responding to reviews. But it's ok I'll just post the reviews here and leave my responses after the authors notes. Let's move onto the reviews shall we? (Side note, I may make very slight changes to the comments for context and grammar purposes. If there's a problem someone has with the changes notify me ASAP in the reviews and I will change it back.)

Reviews: If Jess dies in this story will there be like some romantic moments between Hannah and Mike or no? If you do, make an epilogue of them getting together.

Hmmm it's an option but I am not a huge fan of killing people off in my Until Dawn stories. However Jessica is one of my least favorite characters so you will all have to wait and see. ;)

(That's it with the reviews for now)

 **365 Days Until Dawn (also known as the day of the prank).** "It was just a prank Han!" The infamous words yelled out by Emily Davis on the night of the prank were stated as firm justification of the cruel joke pulled on Hannah Washington. Intended to get Hannah to stop crushing on Michael Munroe, the vast majority of "the group" were in on it. Even Ashley Brown, who many consider to be one of the nicest people in the group, was aware of the cruelty prepared and watched it with interest. She just wanted to fit in, which overcame her better judgment. Although she was merely a spectator to the events, she was not one of its creators. That fell to Jessica Riley, who wanted to look out for her girl Emily. Harmless enough right? Well in another world, another universe altogether perhaps, it wouldn't have been. As cruel as the joke was, it wasn't intended to physically hurt or kill anyone. That's what the result was unfortunately. Hannah and Beth Washington died on that night, as an indirect result of the actions of a certain group; minus Christopher Hartley, long time mutual crush of Ashley's and a nerd at heart, and Josh Washington, the older brother of Hannah and Beth Washington. They didn't participate because, first of all, neither of them would have agreed with the idea. Chris and Josh are best friends and Josh is slightly… shall we say, overprotective of his sisters. He would have put an end to it as soon as he found out if he could have. Chris would have been right on his heels, as Chris is good friends with the sisters and always viewed them as siblings as well due to the close bond they all shared. Unfortunately they were both passed out drunk that night. However there was one more person who didn't agree with the prank, one Samantha Giddings. Sam is best friends with Beth Washington, and also views Hannah as a sibling, along with Beth (of course), and Josh. The bond between them all is tight, and damn near unbreakable. That happens to be why when Hannah chose to get a white tattoo instead of a black one the Native American spirits who rule the mountain took notice; as a white butterfly represents fortune in the lore of Native Americans. There aren't just evil spirits who roam the fabled Blackwood Mountain. For you see, there are spirits of all kinds that roam the world itself as a whole but Blackwood is home to more spirits than most due to its beautiful connection to nature, which plays a huge role in Native American lore. Most spirits are indifferent towards people; however there is one person in the group who happens to be a vegan, animal loving blonde; that some spirits took a liking to though. A few spirits decided that, along with Hannah's tattoo, they would help the poor girl that night and not let the evil that possesses the mountain get to her. So when Hannah desperately tried to run out into the cold snow storm in shock, horror, and sadness at what her "friends" had done to her, the winds picked up brutally and pushed the door shut right as she tried to open it! This wasn't a coincidence as the spirits who Sam had unknowingly gotten on her side saved one of her best friends that night. Hannah considered just opening the door back up and trying once again, but changed her mind and ran up to her room instead. Her room is a place of comfort after all, and if she had been thinking straight she would have run to there in the first place. It's amazing how a few small changes, such as getting a few spirits on your side by respecting nature and deciding on a certain color of tattoo, can completely change a story. And while this story will still have its fair share of ups and downs, it gives everyone a chance at survival. Not just the "main characters" either, as there are certain unsung heroes in this story that the whole group has to thank for their continued existence. And it wouldn't be fair if these heroes didn't get a chance for survival as well would it? But their survival will not be easy, as with every choice there are consequences. A man seen only in the shadows to the group has failed in his mission to kill the makkapitew, the strongest of the evil spirits on Blackwood, as with no prey to chase the makkapitew withdrew to its hiding place. And without a fresh, new body to inhibit it will be angry, and this anger will be taken out on the next people to visit Blackwood.

Authors Notes Ending: Sorry there was so much exposition and plot put into here but once I got rolling I found it hard to stop. xD. But for real this was so fun to write and I also got to search for a ton of different lore for the Algonquian tribe. I had to make sure there weren't just wendigo spirits after all. One request was longer chapters after all and this did hit over a thousand words so I hope you all can forgive the length. Anyways I hope you enjoy and if you do please consider reviewing and rating. It would mean the world to me and I know it's cliché and all but I do enjoy doing this for you all. I'm rambling again so I'll leave it at that. KLil out!


	3. The Beginning of Their End

Chapter 3: The Beginning of Their End

Authors Notes: Chapter 3 has arrived! It took longer than usual to come up with a title for this chapter but I settled on a classic line. The end represents the group's loss of innocence by the way. Just in case you were wondering. Also I am well aware that some believe that the Until Dawn fandom is dying. And while it may be declining the term dying is altogether different. I certainly won't let it happen if I have anything to say about it and will continue to make stories for as long as I enjoy it! Onto the reviews! (P.S. The premiere of TWD was trippin' balls and if you haven't seen it I'd recommend it.)

Reviews: "So if Beth is gonna be paired up with Sam, Chris, and Ashley what will come of her during her trip with them? So will Hannah be paired with Mike when he returns from the sanatorium or what?"

Ummm I'll answer the second question first. Hannah will be with Mike while he's at the Sanatorium. Hannah will have a reason to go after Mike after Jessica falls down the mine shaft (dead or alive), but you'll find out why that is later. (And before you ask, yes I know why but the rest of you will have to wait.) As for the first question, Beth will not be with Sam during the bath scenes with Sam for obvious reasons. This ain't no lemon fic damn it! Instead she will probably be in her room or be with Ashley, Josh, and Chris. As to who they will "talk to" during the séance, it will probably be the spirit of the Makkapitew or the good spirit who saved Hannah, depending on where I decide to take the story. It could be one of the people who were eaten by the miners in the 50's even! Hell maybe nothing will happen at all since Josh was the one who faked the whole thing in canon presumably. Either way there will be serious rewrites to have happen because without Josh's sisters dying there will be no prank which means that there will have to be complete overhauls for the scenes in which Chris and Ashley are harassed during the prank. Unless Josh decides to prank them for what they did to her sister..! But that honestly feels like a cop out as the vast majority of the reason why Josh became as delusional as he was is due to his sisters' disappearances, NOT due to the prank they pulled. And that whole thing felt like bad writing anyways as Josh harassed Chris, Ashley, and Sam the most. Chris and Sam didn't even participate in the prank and Ashley had the lowest role of them all! Sam actually went out of her way to prevent the prank! And before you argue that he was "completely insane" he clearly had enough left in the tank to try and punish the kids for their misdeeds, which means he had a sense of right and wrong, no matter how misguided. He was also smart enough to conceal his disorders. But that's enough rambling let's get onto the chapter, which takes place during the events of the main story.

 **10 Hours Until Dawn:** Sam wasn't altogether surprised when Josh, Hannah, and Beth invited everyone back to the lodge for another year. They've been doing this getaway since they were barely out of Elementary school with their parents after all. But the fact that the invitations made no mention of the prank of the previous year was a little disconcerting. It was definitely the cruelest one ever done by any member of the group, and the fact that so many of her friends took part only added to the shock of it all. Add the fact that Mike and Emily had broken up so abruptly a few weeks back and you can see why this year's party would be a little more… interesting than in years past. Sam also missed the old days, when they were all just friends without any stupid dating and crushing getting in the middle of it all. She reflected on all of this while taking the bus ride up to the path to the cable car station. She eventually pulled up the video Josh, Hannah, and Beth made inviting them all back since she didn't have much else to do.

"Hello, friends and fans." said Josh in a cheerful attitude, as is Josh's normal way.

"What fans do we even have, this whole channel is just used to tell everyone when the parties are anyways." mentioned Beth, who does tend to have quite the sassy and sarcastic attitude at times. However she is also very close to her sister, regardless of her joking manner with her.

"I don't even know if this was a good idea, inviting everyone back, after the 'joke' they pulled." That would be Hannah, who holds a long grudge regardless of whether or not she's forgiven the group, (the jury is still out on Jess, Mike, and Emily). Hannah is also trying to move past Mike, but old love dies hard and slow at times and she may never truly stop loving him. Her love for him was for the Mike that never gave up protecting his friends, who would fight and die for them. Not for the class president and the good looks he has. (Although neither of those things hurt). "Oh shoosh you two this was supposed to be a fun video not one where we bring up old drama, forgive and forget right?" Josh definitely isn't the forgiving type either, but after everyone in the group apologized, (some more heart felt than others), he appeared to have given them all another chance.

"That's rich coming from you Josh, you still haven't forgiven me eating the last bit of ice cream!" said Beth.

"That was really good ice cream and I bought it!"

"We were seven Josh…" reminded Hannah. "Alright I get it but is it wrong to try and turn a new leaf? Whatever the point of this is to welcome all my pals back to the annual Blackwood winter getaway!"

"Yeah let's party like we're porn stars… did I Josh right Han?" said Beth.

"Ha you nailed it, why does he say that so much?"

"Ok I DO say that a lot but we are getting off track again, we hope to make this one night you all will never forget, right girls?"

"Yeah it should be lots of fun." Hannah responded.

"It'll be lit." Beth said sarcastically once again. The video faded after that "heartfelt" statement from Beth and Sam smiled. Her friend sure knows how to make people laugh, albeit unintentionally. Beth makes people laugh with her brutal honesty, whereas she's hopeless when intentionally trying to make people laugh. Hannah on the other hand is a bit more cautious, and more subtle when trying to get her points across. She's also incredibly self- conscious, amplified even more from the past year when she found out that Mike was playing her. Hannah is a wonderful girl though, and not enough people give her credit for that. Sam wishes that more people could see that as well, since most people write Hannah off as another timid nerd, and Sam knows her best friend is so much more. She is one of the best pianists Sam has ever heard, and loves reading almost as much as Ashley does. Their styles clash however, as Ashley won't have anything to do with horror and Hannah loves it, particularly of the supernatural flavor. This is in stark contrast to Hannah's timid demeanor, and is part of what makes her unique. And then there's Josh, Sam's closest guy friend and Josh's closest girl friend. Josh and Sam met through Beth, since Beth and Sam have been best friends since grade school it was only a matter of time before the older brother came into the picture. Josh is a bit of a tortured soul, and one that Sam loves to pieces. Their friends have all insisted that they will one day end up together, and Josh did go with Sam to prom even after he had graduated, but nothing had come of it yet. Josh also has a history of mental disorders, such as depression and insomnia. He's been taking medication for it and Sam had even helped him sleep at times when his insomnia got too bad. Other than that Josh has a quirky sense of humor and is really loving and complex. Josh also has a huge party streak, but that's a given considering he loves to hang out with friends. Sam was so deep in thought she barely noticed that the bus had arrived to the path that leads to the cable car station. Sam was the only one who decided to make the trek alone as Josh, Hannah, and Beth (her top 3 choices), all went up early to set everything up. So Sam walked towards the cable car alone, not knowing she had someone trailing her…

Authors Notes Ending: They just keep getting longer don't they? xD. I can't help myself this story is practically writing itself and I love every second of it! And doing research into the character's traits and trying to stay true to them makes it even more exciting. I'm also learning more about the game. For instance I spent way too much time looking to see if there was a piano in the lodge to base my "Hannah is a pianist" statement off of. (There isn't by the way, as far as I could tell). Other than that, I'm so sorry it took longer than usual but I had such a fun weekend that I never had time to sit down and write. (I went to a haunted house with my family and my sister's friend, and it was a blast.) I do have a life outside of fanfiction though so if a chapter takes longer it's probably for that reason. Anyways, if you have any complaints or praise please leave a review, I really enjoy reading them. KLil out!


	4. One Little Peek

Chapter 4: One Little Peek

Authors Notes: I'm going to be honest, I fucked up. I totally thought Beth was Sam's best friend in canon! I went back and fixed the mistake but that doesn't change the fact that it happened. It does make sense though considering Sam's desperation to warn Hannah in the prologue of canon as well. Also the chapters are taking longer and longer to churn out because of school and life. That and I am working on making them longer and have the writing style flow well. On the bright side I may get an editor soon so the formatting may not suck as much ass! That's if she gets back to me though but if so I'll let you all know. Anyways I can't think of much more to say so on to the reviews! P.s. Two reviews this time eeeek!

Reviews: 1. this isn't a question but a declarative statement: Hannah is Sam's best friend not Beth, but hey fuck it I'll stick with it keep up the good work.

Yeah I already talked about this one in the author's notes but I went back and fixed it. Thanks for letting me know, sticking with the story as much as you have, and thanks for the compliment it means the world to me

2\. I think you should do the prank anyway as payback. Besides Josh is a sadist in case you didn't know.

I can probably justify Josh doing the prank as payback but I don't really think he's a sadist per se. In canon he never seems to overly enjoy hurting his friends he probably just thinks he's justified since they indirectly killed his sisters. But in this if I twist some lines around and make him think he's justified from what could have happened and the pain Hannah felt from having Mike betray her then yeah I could swing it. I don't know for sure what I will do yet but if I do decide on taking things this route then you'll know once the first chapter having to do with it is out ;) That's it for the reviews for now, thanks everyone who reviewed and especially the nice person who notified me of my error, onto the story!

 **10 Hours Until Dawn:** As Sam continued her trek towards the cable car station she couldn't shake the eerie feeling that someone was watching her. Shaking it off as her nerves getting to her she walked on. Soon after, she encountered the gate to enter the ski resort formally owned by the Washington sibling's parents, Blackwood Mountain. On it was a sign written by Chris saying, "The gate's busted, jump over!" –Chris.

"Aw what?" Sam said, frustrated. She turned the note onto the opposite side to see that it was actually a printed off paper that has an email from Beth to Chris telling him how to get to the mountain. Sam looked to the side of the gate and saw that there was an incline that she could climb up. Maybe all those years of rock climbing lessons would finally pay off, Sam thought. Sam opted for the quicker route, with the tradeoff being less safety since it is steeper. Sam also decided to go for a jump instead of a safe climb at the end and barely made it. Once over the fence she walked a little ways before encountering a squirrel.

"Aww hey lil fella! You hungry?" Sam kept as still as possible while holding out food she got from her pack and the squirrel graciously accepted.

"Hehe, cutie." Sam smiled before moving on. After another small ways Sam stumbled across a sign telling her about the different colors of butterflies and what they represent in ancient native American folk lore.

"Huh! Cool." Sam said, however she didn't give it to much thought. Sam has seen that sign every year for however long she's been going up there after all. She also knew Hannah ate this stuff up though so she made a mental note to mention it to her when Sam finally got to the lodge. What Sam doesn't know is that the sign gave massive insight into Hannah and Beth's own fate. The black butterflies depict death, red butterflies represent danger, brown butterflies represent loss or tragedy, yellow ones represent guidance, and finally white butterflies, (the same color as the one that happens to be on Hannah's arm), represent fortune, or luck. Sam moved on, as nothing else of importance was at the sign. She wound up finally reaching the cable car station, and was in a hurry to get inside as the night was quickly giving way to the freezing cold. When she arrived at the door she realized it was locked, giving her no choice but to sit on the bench outside… or explore. Sam chose the second option and noticed a sign that once had a map of the ski mountain on it. But now there was graffiti written on it that said, in clear, blood red letters, "Enjoy your luck in the past, for the future is grimm". Sam didn't give it to much thought, dismissing the graffiti as a random act of vandalism. She was confused that there would be graffiti all the way up the trail though, and she voiced her confusion.

"Wow, graffiti all the way up here?" She moved along, and finally noticed Chris' backpack on the bench.

"Chris… are you here? Your bag is here, where are you? You're not in the bag are you?" She smirked quickly at her own joke. Sam also saw that his phone was going off in the bag, and as any normal person would do she picked it up to snoop.

"What have we here?" Ashley had texted him! Everyone knows that those two have enormous crushes on each other but maybe they'd finally gotten together?

"Hey nosey!"

Authors Notes Ending: Chris has finally arrived! Sorry to end the chapter on a bit of a cliff hanger but I'm waaaay behind schedule and wanted to pump this bad boy out fast! There will definitely be more dialogue in the next chapter since Sam finally has someone to talk to. And I know the beginning of this is very similar to the beginning of canon but that's because there isn't much mention of the prank or the twins until slightly later on. Anyways, happy Halloween and as always, if you enjoyed please consider rating and reviewing, it makes me so happy! KLil out!


	5. Be My Friend at the End

Chapter 5: Be My Friend at the End

Authors Notes: I had writer's block really bad! After I wrote this chapter it got deleted when my laptop restarted. Overall though it was a blessing in disguise since the chapter was really badly written, hopefully this time around it will be less trashy! In other news, there are a lot of stories being posted lately which is awesome! It's probably due to Halloween coming and going which puts everyone in a horror type of mood. Also the author of one of my favorite stories left a review! That's crazy since I didn't know any of the authors of stories I read knew I existed! The story is titled "Until We Meet Again" and it's fantastic, so go give it a read if you want. Anyways that's enough rambling and fangirling let's move onto the reviews. (P.s I finally got an editor so the formatting should be better). (P.s. again there was an epic fail of formatting the story I did where one chapter was posted twice and one wasn't up at all but it is fixed now.)

Reviews: 1. Thanks for leaving that review on my story! This is very clever. I like how you're generally sticking close to the actual events of the game, which makes it all the more surprising when you veer away from that. Well done :)- Bookreader525.

So this is the review that I was fangirling about so much and I really appreciate the time the author spent to review my story. I am generally trying to follow the events of the game but there will be times when I'm forced to veer away do to plot changes or do so for my own interest. For instance there will be no totems in this story for the sake of the fact that it would make no sense to give the characters forewarning about the events of the night and have them do nothing to avoid them. I could always have them and just have the reader see them and not the characters but that feels like cheating for this specific story. I have never seen that done before so if someone else wants to write a fan fiction with that idea in mine they can.

2\. That is a very nice cliffhanger you put up and also one thing where are you going to do with the clues that involved Hannah and Beth?

Oh I haven't thought of that… O.O I could always remove them completely or put something else in that would make more sense to the story at hand. You will just have to wait and see ;). Also I am just now appreciating how vast this project will go since every detail has to be accounted for or I will be mad at myself. Anyways let's get onto the story.

 **10 Hours Until Dawn:** "Oh. Chris… you scared me!" Sam responds after gasping out loud.

"I'm sorry, but are you my secretary." Chris is infamous for being in love with his phone, almost as in love as he is with Ashley. But he won't admit that to anyone… except maybe Josh.

"It was buzzing…"

"Cool, well, thanks for letting me know. I can take it from here". Sam and Chris looked at each other briefly and Chris seemed to figure out that Sam knew something she wasn't letting on about something. To break the awkward silence he ended up proclaiming

"Oh, so I found someone _kinda_ amazing."

Sam, immediately curious, responded with "who is it?"

"I'm not gonna tell you. You have to see it for yourself."

"But where is this person…"

"Right around here, come on she will blow your mind." Sam followed Chris around to the back of the cable car station where the shooting range is to see who else but Hannah standing at the shooting range!

"Hannah oh my God I thought you were still up with Josh and Beth getting everything ready!"

"I was but I saw you were here on the cameras so I came down as fast as possible, Chris found me first though."

"It's really good to see you Hannah; I haven't seen you in so long."

"Didn't you see her last week when Mike and Emily announced that they were broken up at that party…?" Chris chimed in.

"A week is too long for best friends Chris! You of all people should know that." Hannah jumped back in to say.

"Yeah, Josh and I can't go two hours without texting each other haha, anyways let's get out of here and onto the cable car… it's cold!" Sam and Hannah both agreed and they walked quickly to the cable car, completely ignoring the shooting range. After all they have seen it every year since they were kids!

"Man, it is weird coming up here after a year." Chris remarked.

"It's not as weird if you own the place and come up here more, but I still get what you're saying." Hannah chimed in. Sam took the opportunity to see how Hannah was looking. After all this would be her first time seeing Mike since the prank. Hannah looked well, with a healthy flush on her cheeks and a confident stride in her walk. Sam guessed that the prank had changed Hannah somehow, giving her a bit more confidence towards Mike and leaving her a little less desperate for his attention. Sam also knew from all of their long chats during the previous night that Hannah has mostly forgiven Mike, and is willing to give him another chance. But Hannah will never forget what had happened and how badly the prank had hurt her. Hopefully neither will Mike. Hannah is wearing a pair of tight black jeans as she dislikes leggings, along with a dark blue beanie that compliments her dark brown hair. She is also wearing a dark blue ski jacket and a white tank top under her black long sleeved shirt. Sam also notices a wanted poster for one "Jack Fiddler".

"Hey Hannah and Chris, come take a look at this real quick."

"Wow, think we'll get a visit from America's most wanted?" Chris remarks slightly dismissively.

"Damn it Sam now you've made me nervous." Hannah responded anxiously.

"Oh come on Han the date on this poster is from 1998, we were like a year old when he did whatever he did."

"Yeah don't worry Han I'll protect you if he shows up." Chris then struck a remarkably overly exaggerated flex which made both girls laugh. Sam walked up to the cable car door and tries to open it only to find it locked.

"Huh that's weird, the door is locked." "Hannah chimed in saying,

"Yeah some people were sleeping in the station once so we have to keep it locked now." "That's… really creepy, hey look out!" Sam stopped Chris from stepping right on top of a squirrel who had run by.

"Oh thanks Sam, anyways let's get to the lodge, no need to keep everyone waiting." Both girls agreed and walked into the station with Chris.

Authors Notes Ending: The squirrel thing felt really forced but I had to have some kind of reference to it since it is the first instance of a butterfly effect truly come to fruition. (If you shoot the squirrel in canon at the shooting range a crow attacks Sam.) I was thinking if this was the game instead of canon (which it isn't for all of you copyright abusers out there), then there would be a QTE when the squirrel runs by. And if you fail then the same consequence happens in canon. Anyways that just about wraps up the chapter, KLil out!


	6. On Borrowed Time

Chapter 6: On Borrowed Time

Authors Notes: When I first started this story I had no idea how much fun it would be to write honestly. It was supposed to be a new hobby that I could do on the occasion that I have time but it's totally changed my view on just about everything. Now when I read books (which I've loved to do ever since I was a kid) I look at them from a whole new perspective as a critique and a writer rather than just a fan. It's also helped my school work immensely as my writing skill has increased 3 fold! One thing I have to work on though is the tenses (past, present, and future), as I've always struggled with them. Hopefully that particular issue will improve with time but who knows haha. Anyways let's move on to the reviews shall we? There is more than one this time!

Reviews:

1\. Poptarts1121 chapter 5. Nov 8- cool! I like this story. (Aw thank you haha. I try my best )

2\. Revision chapter 5. Nov 8- Nice thinking with that squirrel, you are gonna have to probably take your time with what I said with "what will you do with the clues that involved Hannah and Beth"; you can come to know me as "Revision". (Hello Revision thanks for your input on the chapters so far! You're also the first person to leave more than one review I think! As for the clues involving Hannah and Beth they're probably gonna be replaced by other things that I come up with involving the backstory of a certain very scary wendigo!)

 **10 Hours Until Dawn:** Hannah decided to take up the rear of the small group that had just walked into the cable car station. She figured that if something… or someone happened to be in there she would be safest in the back. That and Hannah is no good in a fight, because even though she is tall she is also thin and prefers a good book to a good workout… unless tennis was involved. Sam also never even gave Hannah a voice in the matter, immediately taking up the front and marching inside with a confidence that always made Hannah smile. Where to begin with Samantha Giddings? Hannah thought this with an internal laugh as Chris, Hannah, and Sam searched around the cable car station for anything interesting while the car came down the mountain to pick them up. Sam is a confident, beautiful girl that couldn't be any more different than Hannah. Hannah is shy and has dark hair, whereas Sam's confidence and blonde hair sometimes threatens to overshadow Hannah. Sam also had a calm and cool attitude when under pressure, which is yet another strong contradiction to Hannah, who likes to panic… a lot. But in a life or death situation Hannah may be one to surprise, as Sam and Chris will come to see soon enough. Hannah also has strong anxiety and will stress about things that most other people may not even notice, which shows another strong personality trait of Hannah; she is incredibly observant. Hannah has no trouble seeing both the big picture and the minute details of a situation. This will certainly come in handy later on. Compare this to Sam, who tends to take things in stride and doesn't ask too many questions about the "hows" in life and you can see how the two are total opposites. But that's what makes them best friends after all, opposites attract. Hannah also noticed how funny it is that the three of them that happened to meet up all have strong ties to Josh. Blood, friendship, and love are the three strongest forms of human attachment. Hannah stopped thinking about Josh after that though, as she had noticed something off with him after the night of the prank. The spark that was once in his eyes was fading, and the only people that could really bring that back was his friends, family, and Sam. Hannah totally knows that Sam and Josh have a huge mutual crush on each other that only got stronger after that night. Josh went to a pretty dark place immediately following it, and no one could truly figure out why. He was put on some really heavy duty meds that only seemed to make him worse as well. Sam helped him so much more than anyone else could though, and Hannah thinks that Sam doesn't realize just how much she helped him. Hannah entered another room where she saw a poster for the old sanatorium and hotel that was on the mountain before her family had bought it. Hannah really gets down at times about the sheer wealth of her family, since people look at her and assume she's just another one of the one percent that gets everything she ever wanted. If Hannah got everything she ever wanted then Mike and Jess definitely wouldn't be flirting for one, but that's beside the point. Hannah walked back outside to find Sam and Chris already there and getting ready to board the cable car, which had just arrived.

"All aboard!" yelled out Chris cheerfully.

"Hilarious Chris", Sam said sarcastically. They all boarded the cable car and began their ascension to the lodge.

"Do you guys think it was a good idea to come back up here after what happened last year", Sam asked anxiously, which isn't like her at all and made Hannah nervous.

"Definitely, Josh hasn't been the pumped about something in forever, and the others probably want to make amends with Hannah here." Chris said confidently.

"I feel like Emily and Jess would rather rip their own jaws off then apologize to me Chris!" Hannah said jokingly. Oh if only Hannah knew how accurate that term is…


	7. Everyone Has Demons

Chapter 7: Everyone Has Demons

Chapters Notes: I'm back from vacation! Now that I'm back it's back to business as usual. The reason I didn't write more during vacation is I was having a lot of fun, the internet was really bad so it was hard to do research to make sure everything makes sense, and I had writers block. It feels good to sit on my bed and bust out another chapter though so I will work hard to make this a good one. As for reviews there is another one from the ever useful Revision today. I really enjoy your reviews and insight Revision so thanks for all of your help! Let's move onto the review now.

Reviews: Revision chapter 6. Nov 20

I can take a hint to what Hannah's traits are high: honest, curious, and charitable. Low: brave and funny. I don't know about romantic so I'm just gonna put that in the middle. Let me know if I got it right or wrong, we already know that her traits will heighten during her experience and we don't really have to check The Strangers traits because it's pretty obvious since he's a Wendigo hunter. (Yeah you hit the nail on the head for Hannah that's pretty much exactly how I imagined her character except for romantic. I imagine her as being very romantic instead of just in the middle. Obviously Beth has much less romance than Hannah and is also braver. I like that the two sisters are similar but still have different personalities such as Hannah being more naïve and Beth being more of a blunt person. As for the Stranger he's definitely brave, curious, and charitable. His lowest would be honest, funny, and romantic. Now that we have got some of the character traits out of the way let's move on to the story.

 **10 Hours Until Dawn:** Sam, Hannah, and Chris were fast approaching the top of the cable car station and Chris had just finished off his story of how he met Josh.

"Boom, butterfly effect." Chris finished with emphasis.

"I feel like you and Josh would have found a way to meet each other either way Chris, it's like a match made in heaven!" Hannah stated with firm conviction.

"I guess you're right, after all if you believe in fate…" Chris' voice trailed off when a loud thunk notified the group that the cable car had reached the top station.

"One step closer to our destination!" Hannah said with excitement as she was getting cold and wanted to get back to the comfort of the lodge.

Jessica was waiting for Mike to finally get up the mountain and make it to the top of the cable car station, which is where she happened to be right at that moment, when she heard a loud clunk, indicating that someone had taken the trip up that she had undergone just minutes before.

"Oh boy, some people… time to meet and greet." She walked to the door that for some reason stays locked from the inside, assuming that Mike would be there to meet her and jumped when she heard an enormous BANG.

"Jessica hey, can you please let us out." Sam called out desperately.

"Umm are you guys having a really weird stroke?" "Jess please just let us out of this stupid station." Hannah stated hopelessly.

"Oh Hannah… hey." Jessica said awkwardly as she opened the door to let out the three people that were previously trapped in the cable car station.

"Hannah, I just wanted to say… I'm really sorry about what happened last year, it never was meant to be that mean. I was just scared for Em you know?" Hannah took a deep breath before beginning what Jess assumed was a total tangent before surprising her by saying,

"Jessica, the prank you orchestrated was cruel but I've forgiven you, no one got hurt and Emily and Mike aren't even together anymore. They broke up two weeks ago and I know that you and Em are close so you should be helping her out. I hope she's ok…"

"Wow, that's very… mature of you Hannah and don't worry, Emily is fine. She has liked Matt for quite some time now so that's part of the reason why they broke up."

"Oh that's good. Sam, Chris, and I need to be getting to the lodge, are you coming?"

"I was thinking of waiting here for Emily and maybe see who else is coming along."

"Alright then see you later Jess, let's go guys." The rest of Hannah's group took off for the lodge after exchanging goodbyes with Jessica.

Jessica felt bad lying to Hannah at all, especially after she had been so kind to Jess, but she had no other choice. If Han had found out from Jess that the real reason Mike and Em had broken up was because Mike had feelings for both Jessica AND Hannah, then Emily and Mike would both get madder than it was worth dealing with right now. Emily had also quickly rebounded with Matt to get over the hurt she had felt learning that Mike was so conflicted with his emotions. Jessica, for one, wasn't going to betray her best friend and destroy her new chance of a friendship with Hannah by dating Mike, so both Jess and Mike remained single. Throw into the mix the fact that Beth and Josh both had feelings for Sam and this would make for one interesting weekend. Beth is bisexual and has liked Sam for almost as long as Josh has, and the poor girl was none the wiser. But how did Emily, and later Jessica, find out about all of this? Well, the Josh, Beth, and Sam thing had been going on since they were in middle school and anyone that had ever seen all three of them together in the same place could see there was some unspoken drama between them. The Mike scenario was trickier for Jess and Emily to figure out since Mike's best friend, (who he told a lot to), wasn't a common part of the group. He also happens to be Mike's vice president for student council. This man's name is Adam Thompson and while he is very loyal to Mike, he's also a bit drama obsessed. Emily had used that to her advantage and eventually managed to get it out of him that Mike was very much conflicted in his relationship with Emily. That was all she needed to confront Mike about it and one thing led to another and eventually Mike had said they needed to take a break for him to figure out his own emotions. Not everyone knew this, as Josh's main circle, them being Sam, Beth, Chris, and Hannah; all had no idea that Mike might have feelings for Hannah. Jessica also wasn't sure if Mike's feelings for Hannah were genuine or the result of the guilt from the prank he had been such a large part of… or both. Jessica eventually gave up waiting for Emily, figuring she must have already been on her way up to the lodge and had gotten ahead of her.

Emily and Matt were having a conversation about why the lodge couldn't just be right where the cable car station had ended as they walked up to the lodge.

"Seriously, couldn't they have built the lodge, like, right where the cable car ends?" Emily had asked with annoyance.

"I don't think it would have been like, as pretty… ya know?" Matt responded.

"Yeah I guess, and where's the bellboy when you need one."

"I'm pretty sure that's what I'm here for Em."

"Aww you're sweet." As Matt and Emily kept walking they struck up a conversation about the awkwardness and drama this year would bring.

"I'm getting chills… brr." "We're almost there."

"No I mean like, it's gonna be weird seeing everyone together in one place."

"Yeah it's definitely gonna feel like a normal party, I mean what do you think-". It was at that moment a large, hulking figure leaped out at the two!

Authors Notes Ending: About three quarters of the way through this chapter I fell asleep so I jumped back in that same weekend so if there's any differences in writing that will do it haha. I also tried to Jessica's character make more sense, if she is Emily's best friend why would she go and date Mike right after they broke up? And with that I saw a great opportunity to make Hannah's character more relevant as a whole since until now she has just sort of been hanging around. So now this may be a Mike x Hannah or a Mike x Jessica depending on the way this story shapes out and how I'm feeling when I write it. Heck maybe Jessica will end up with Matt and Emily will end up with Mike… that's doubtful but hey anything's possible.


	8. Home Is Where the War Is

Chapter 8: Home is Where the War is

Chapters Notes: It would appear I struck a nerve! I had no idea people hated the idea of Mike x Emily as much as they did! Honestly to me it seems like something that would be interesting as there isn't much of it in the fandom and they DID date back during the prank. But the crowd has spoken, both of the reviews for the last chapter stated quite explicitly that they did NOT like the idea of Mike x Emily at all so that idea is officially out. Of course I probably wasn't going to do it anyways but it was a nice concept while it lasted. Now there's only the canon Mike x Jess and the not- quite- as- canon Mike x Hannah, which is what I am leaning towards at the moment. Now keep in mind, this is still my own story so it's not like reviewer's word is law. But I'd like to think that you guys have a lot of say of the finer aspects of this story so it's not like I ignore the reviews. Speaking of which…

Reviews:

Guest chapter 7. Dec 8

I'm ok with Jess and Matt, but Em and Mike hell no, nobody likes them together, but you do whatever you want to do. (I appreciate you acknowledging the fact that I still have the final word on what happens in the story. This isn't one of the gimmicky fics where the reviewers decide what happens. Now again I want to state that you guys still have sway; for instance if enough people say for something not to happen in the story it will most likely not happen. The only exceptions being things my mind is dead set on, such as in chapter 2(?) when the prank happened and Hannah and Beth were saved by the spirits on the mountain rather than fall to their "deaths". That was the entire catalyst of the story!

Revision chapter 7. Dec 9

That reviewer is right, nobody really likes Mike and Em together, so it's best not to upset the readers and also I only review when I see something that needs to be corrected. When I don't review that means the author is pretty much on track. (So I should be hoping for LESS replies, not more? xD. But for real I appreciate the dedication and faith you're putting into my first story by reviewing as much as you are Revision. Even though I've never met you it feels like you get my writing style and you've been essential in helping my story grow. That goes for the rest of you as well! The majority of my views come from consistent viewers who choose to read every chapter so I try my best to have people come back by posting as much as I can. Of course the point of me doing this wasn't for views and I'm astonished at the amount I've gotten, (almost 1000 at this point!) but it still gives me more drive and motivation to publish more if I see that I'm still getting a lot of views. Now I'm not gonna pull some bullshit where I say "IF YOU WANT THE NEXT CHAPTER BY NEXT FRIDAY THEN GIVE ME VIEWS" like SOME writers I know, but views do encourage me to work harder. I am a very lazy person in real life after all and I'm a senior in High School so I'm also busy. But that won't stop me from writing this because it's fun and remarkably enlightening to me.)

 **10 Hours Until Dawn:** Matt absolutely froze when he saw the terrifying… thing that had just jumped out into the path Emily and him have been walking on to get to the lodge and… OH SHIT EMILY, Matt thought when he realized that he hadn't bothered to see if she was ok. Matt had had his eyes closed before since he was just so scared… Turning very slowly, as he was still damn near completely petrified from how scary this thing was. He saw that she had frozen in fear as well and he had to walk over and make sure she was ok and, "SCREEEEE" the thing yelled out with a blood curdling scream before running off into the woods on the opposite side of where it had jumped out before. Both Emily and Matt just stood there for a moment before Emily ran into Matt's arms and started crying. Matt was caught off guard since usually Emily was stronger willed than that before he startled himself by crying as well.

"Matt, what was that thing; it almost seemed like a monster or something…"

"Emily I don't know but I think we should get to the lodge, and for right now keep it between us."

"What? We should warn the others that there's a fucking monster on this mountain."

"I know and we will but for right now they'll think that we are just pranking them or think we're nuts."

"Yeah… you're right, and Matt, thanks for checking on me I know you must have been just as scared as I was."

"Of course, Em." Matt finished with a smile. They both continued walking towards the lodge, a lot more on edge and weary then before. Unfortunately in all of the commotion Emily had dropped one of her bags, which lay forgotten under the gently falling snow.

Mike was deep in thought as he walked towards the lodge from the cable car station when he was caught off guard by someone, or something that had just given off an impossibly loud screech that had made him nearly jumped out of his own skin.

"That was no squirrel…" Mike thought but decided to ignore. It could have just been a prank from one of his friends trying to freak him out… yeah that had to be it. Resuming his previous train of thought, he continued to walk. He was torn between Jessica and Hannah, both of whom would be in the lodge with him for the weekend. On the one hand was Jessica, whom he had liked since before the night of the prank but couldn't act on since he was still with Emily, and don't get him wrong he did like Emily a lot. Sure she could be bitchy at times but overall she was very smart and kind if you were on her good side. He was more than sad when they had agreed they should take a break to work out their feelings and felt a bit betrayed when Matt had started dating her. But Matt had honored bro code and had waited 2 months before hitting on her and Mike had been the one to first suggest taking a break so Mike couldn't be too angry. Jessica was a very sweet and beautiful girl, one who loved being the life of the party and while she wasn't as smart or talented intellectually as Emily, she also wasn't as bitchy. Jessica does have a cruel streak however, which is what led to her orchestrating the prank that had hurt Hannah so very much. Luckily Hannah is quick to forgive, but she does have a long memory. Mike had started developing feelings for Hannah after he realized that dating popular girls exclusively wasn't working for him. He didn't want to date just because it was the "cool" thing to do and was legitimately trying to find someone to spend the rest of his life with. Mike had realized that he had devastated Hannah with the stunt he had agreed to and was waiting for the right time to really apologize to her. He was also scared that she would reject any advancement he may offer as Mike had always had a subtle fear of rejection, which is why he was never the first to make a move. He always waited for the girl to flirt first before flirting back and Hannah was always so god damn non confident that she was also never first to make a move. This led to an interesting back and forth between the two that had led to a lot of awkward moments at college, where they were both freshmen. Mike was sure that his feelings for Hannah were not just because he was trying to redeem himself for the prank and went further than that. Mike likes Hannah's shy and kind personality, her ability to forgive people for anything as long as they apologize, and her optimism about the world that some considered naïve. Mike doesn't view her hopes, dreams, and light as that of a naïve girl who can't appreciate that the world isn't perfect because Mike knows that she knows that the world is not perfect and never will be. Instead he thinks that her idealisms are that of someone who is willing to work to make the world better, or die trying. Hannah spreads that ideal by trying to be cheerful, forgiving, and loving. That also explains Hannah's choice of best friend, as Sam is an animal lover and vegan who happens to be accepting of all cultures and beliefs. Compared to Jessica, Hannah is almost nerdy by comparison. Jessica is the girl who makes others feel good by always being the spark at the party, whereas Hannah is the girl who makes individuals feel just as good by having a long, insightful conversation. Jessica loves to gossip and Hannah loves to read. Jessica plays volleyball for her college and Hannah is part of manga club. Hannah is closer to her sister and brother than most of the others at that age, and Jessica hasn't talked to her sister since she ran off to join the Red Cross. It may be self-centered but Jessica couldn't forgive her older sister for leaving her alone. This is due in large part because of Jessica's fear of isolation. Hannah isn't afraid of being alone, she's afraid of the dark. This is mostly because of Hannah's dedication to reading and watching a lot of fiction about horror, which causes her to have quite the vivid imagination. Hannah is also an amazing pianist, even though she hasn't been practicing lately because of school and drama. With those thoughts still dancing in his mind, Mike finally made it to the lodge.

Ashley had been hoping to walk up to the lodge with Chris, but from the best she could tell after she had gotten to the lodge he had been walking alone before stumbling across Hannah and, a bit later, Sam. Ashley couldn't help but feel a bit of resentment at the idea that Sam and Hannah got to talk to Chris when she herself hadn't seen him in person for a few weeks. She brushed it off eventually as she thought she was being petty. However, Ashley had gotten bored of waiting and had gone down to the observatory, which had a really nice pair of binoculars that let you see a lot of things on the mountain. Ashley was moving them around when she saw something that definitely didn't belong in nature. It looked like a tall, humanoid alien that ran around on all fours… or something. Before she could get a better look it ran off, and Ashley brushed it off as her being paranoid. There was no way that something like that could actually be on the mountain… right? Ashley continued looking before noticing Sam and Josh having a very adamant conversation about something. Sam was talking with her hands a lot and seemed very concerned, whereas Josh seemed frustrated and defensive.

"I wonder what they're talking about…" Ashley had no idea about what it could be about but before she could see more something jumped up in front of the binoculars! Ashley jumped, thinking about the creature she thought she had seen before, until she realized it was only Matt.

After getting to the lodge, Matt had decided to take a walk to clear his head as he'd had quite the night so far. When he saw Ashley looking through the binoculars he thought it would be the perfect time for a prank to cheer up. So he had snuck around to the front of the binoculars and put his face right in front of them to scare Ashley a bit. He felt remorseful after he realized that she'd been more shaken up than he had intended, and briefly flashed back to the event with Emily a bit earlier on.

"Whoa, sorry Ash didn't mean to scare you there that badly."

"Oh Matt oh my gosh!"

"Hey, wow Ash, I'm really sorry, damn." Ashley took a deep breath before saying,

"it's ok, it's fine". There was a bit of an awkward silence before Matt asked,

"See anything juicy with that thing?"

"Take a look for yourself if you want to." Matt looked into the binoculars and quickly noticed the two arguing.

"Huh what do you think they're talking about down there."

"I have no clue honestly." Ashley responded.

"Well that's interesting, let's get back to the lodge, everyone else should be there by now." "Alright sure lets book it." The two quickly made their way back to the lodge where the others were waiting.

Authors Notes Ending: I'm honestly pretty proud of this chapter, as it's the longest one I've written yet and I did a lot of fact checking to try and make sure that everything made sense. I tried to make some things different because I felt as though canon didn't do a good enough job foreshadowing the wendigos existing so I tried to add them in earlier. And since I'm not good with subtleties I decided to just have one run into Matt and Emily based on chance. I also decided not to have Emily cheat on Matt in this story because Emily and Matt's relationship was basically obliterated in canon no matter what you do so I'm trying to give them a better chance at having everything work out. I also had this chapter go so long because I wanted everyone to finally get to the lodge. With that in mind, prepare for some epic love triangle action with Beth, Sam, and Josh next time around, along with some Chris and Ashley flirting and me trying to figure out how to get Hannah to be with Mike at the sanitarium while Jess is either dead or in the mines. Hope you all enjoyed!


	9. Beautiful Scars

Chapter Nine: Beautiful Scars

Chapters Notes: Merry belated Christmas to all of my amazing readers! I hope you all had as amazing a Christmas as I did and will continue to enjoy yourselves on break. I haven't gotten any reviews but I did get a new follow and a new favorite. I'm going to start mentioning them all by name but for the sake of fairness I shall mention all of the followers and all of the people who favorite by name now. So, thank you to all of the favoriters, OverlyObsessiveWriter, Poptarts1121, and boo56. Thank you as well to my followers; all two of them haha. Akoslows and boo56, thanks for following this story until it is finished. Anyways there are no reviews this time around which means the last chapter was either very bad or very good, hopefully the latter. Anyways enough chit chat let's move on to the story.

 **9 Hours Until Dawn:**

"Man I feel like this mountain gets bigger every time I climb it." Chris said while walking around the grounds of the lodge with Josh.

"Yeah? Feels the same to me." Chris noticed that Josh seemed very distracted, almost as if he wasn't all there with the conversation at hand. Especially because Josh was always the one who wanted to talk, which lead to Chris wondering if he was off his meds again. Josh had demons, most notably of the mental disorder. Ever since the prank last year, Josh had just gotten worse. Sure his sisters were there for him, but he had felt more betrayed than he'd ever had before by his friends and had also been mad that he hadn't been there to help. He also blamed Chris a tiny bit, even though deep down he had known that there was nothing he could have done. Most notably of all, Josh blamed himself.

"Come on dude, you've been coming up here ever since you could toddle, if anything it probably feels like it's shrinking."

"Yeah I guess that's true." Chris pulled out his phone and noticed that there was no signal as he was far from the base of the mountain.

"Man, when are you gonna build some cell towers up here, I'm already getting withdrawals?" "I'll get right on it if you got a spare million lying around."

"Funny you should mention that… aw shit I left it in my other pants."

"Ha, oops." They approached the lodge and saw everyone there, minus Jess who had yet to arrive. Chris said goodbye and walked up to Ashley, and Josh went over to Hannah and Sam. Beth had also joined their little posse and Josh decided to say hi to her first. "Do you think we did a good job setting everything up for the party?" Beth asked him. "Everything was alright when we came out, it should be fine. We got booze, weed, and beds. Everyone will figure out what to do from there."

"Ha! You're probably right." Josh then turned to Hannah.

"Did you make your way down the mountain alright?"

"Yeah I did thanks, but keep in mind that I'm not a kid anymore and I can handle my own."

"Haha yeah you're right, natural big brother instinct." Finally Josh turned to Sam.

"Hey Sammy, about our conversation earlier–"

"We can talk about it later Josh, just remember what I said."

"Oh I will." Hannah turned to Sam with a not-so-smooth nudge. In reply, Sam gave her a look that said not now. That gave Beth an opening to start flirting with Sam which pissed Josh off. Hannah was thus stuck as the third wheel. Luckily (or unluckily depending on how you look at it), Mike walked up and asked if he could talk to Hannah… alone. Hannah didn't hesitate to accept as much as she normally would since she was feeling neglected. When they had walked a decent distance away from the rest of the group, Mike turned and started talking.

"Look, I know I messed up last year really bad and I'm really sorry but I wanted to explain myself." He waited for her to nod before continuing.

"Honestly, I only agreed because I was confused and thought that if I saw you I'd know if your feelings for me were genuine or not. I thought it might have just been a stupid crush but I can see now that it was something more, unfortunately it's too late but I guess what I'm trying to say is, I like you." Mike finished his rant / confession with a deep breath and a nervous smile and let Hannah talk.

"Mike… a year ago I would've flipped shit at hearing this and even now I've got butterflies but…" Mike prepared himself for the worst before the unexpected happened…

Matt and Emily were huddled together on the stairs to the foyer, still thinking about their time at the bridge, still obviously traumatized. So they just sat there and enjoyed each other's warmth for a while until Jessica finally arrived. Emily ran to her best friend and hugged her as they hadn't seen each other in years.

"Jess, you should hear this from me first." Emily whispered to Jessica.

"What is it?"

"Mike just walked away with Hannah, something big might be going down." Jessica knew that Mike had feelings for the both of them but she didn't think he would make his decision this soon.

"He better choose me, he'd only choose Hannah because he still feels bad about last year, but still I'm sure he will do what he thinks is right."

"This whole situation is weird Jess, considering what happened last year…"

"I know, but at least everything turned out ok." Jess changed the subject after that and they started talking about Mike some more.

It was awkward at first when Ashley and Chris started talking but they soon felt as if they had never stopped their conversation from two weeks before. Obviously there's skyping, texting, phone calls and other means of communication but nothing in Ashley's mind could beat a one on one talk in person. Just after their conversation had turned towards Sam, Josh, and Beth; Josh went to the top of the stairs and declared that the doors were "iced". Chris walked towards Josh to see how he could help while a mysterious stranger looked on from the woods.

Authors Notes Ending: Finally jeez. This chapter took 3 different long nights and a lot of edits on my end to make right and even then I couldn't capture the same feeling I had for the last chapter. That last chapter I honestly feel like was something special but hopefully you guys like this one all the same. Not a whole lot actually got done but hey it needed to be posted so be patient with me haha.

Editor's Notes – Ending: Stardate 94603.48: KLil31 had me do this because I was over at his house for New Year's and his normal editor couldn't get it back to him in time. I know nothing of Until Dawn except for the intro, but I was mostly making grammatical fixes. Anyway, have a happy New Year. Live long and prosper. – AFROKID538


	10. On Critical Veins

Chapter 10: On Critical Veins

Chapters Notes: Ok so straight into business, we have one review today! It's very short however so I will not be giving reviews its own segment this time around and will just paraphrase it here. It's another from Revision and he said that everything was looking good! It's good to know that one of my most recurring readers thinks everything looks good. There is also new favoriters! That's crazy time and I greatly appreciate it but for simplicity sakes I will list all of the favoriters again here. Remember that I love seeing this and will cherish it forever . The favoriters are:

FanOfMe36

12-31-2016

OverlyObsessiveWriter

10-16-2016

Poptarts1121

11-08-2016

boo56

12-22-2016

sophiXon

01-10-2017

And last but certainly not least the followers (who I appreciate equally as much) are right here. There's two more than before as well!

FanOfMe36

12-31-2016

akoslows

11-29-2016

boo56

12-22-2016

sophiXon

01-10-2017

That seems to be everything, thanks again everyone! Onto the story we go!

 **9 Hours Until Dawn:** Mike was feeling nervous for the first time in living memory. He usually doesn't get nervous about anything, be it sports, school government, or girls. That's because Mike is always the guy who doesn't have to work for what he wants… until now.

Hannah was feeling nervous; as usual. She finally had a chance with the person she'd been crushing on since grade school, Mike Munroe. He was single for the first time since, well, grade school! Add to the fact that he was here asking HER out and you can understand the butterflies that were in her stomach. She had some hesitation however, since there was a very real chance that Jess or Emily were putting him up to this…

"I know what you're thinking." Mike said.

"Do you? That would be a first." Hannah responded with slight venom in her words due to old scars from the night of the prank.

"Yeah, you're afraid this is another prank. That Emily, Jessica, and I have orchestrated another cruel joke on you. But I promise that I'll never do anything like that to you ever again."  
"Mike…"

That's all Hannah could say before they both heard a loud noise come from the woods behind them. It wasn't a natural noise either, more of a loud screeching type of sound. It seemed to come from something less natural than wind or an animal though, more like it was coming from something evil right out of Mr. Washington's movies. Hannah and Mike both knew that whatever made the noise couldn't be good, so they both moved back to the lodge in silence, moving stealthily in the snowy mountain woods.

Chris could not believe that Josh had talked him into this. Of all the doors into the lodge, the only one unlocked was the door to the foyer… which was frozen shut. That means that Chris and Josh had to find a back route, which they did by breaking open a window near the back. The elevated window was higher than Chris had expected however so now he was lying flat on his back on the floor of the lodge.

"Ow…" Chris muttered since he'd had the wind knocked out of him.

"You alright, bro? That was a pretty tough fall…"

"I'm ok; I should have paid more attention in climbing class…"

Josh looked confused before asking, "You mean gym?"

"Yeah, you know with the climbing up the rope…" Right at that moment a light bulb shattered; casting the whole room into an eerie darkness that Chris was not a fan of.

"Whoa…" Josh muttered in disbelief.

"Did I do that?" Chris asked, confused.

"I don't, I don't think so." Josh said uncertainly. Chris noticed that Josh seemed concerned about something, which wasn't like Josh at all. Josh was usually more confident than that. "Here, use this." Josh then tossed Chris a lighter to use as light. The moment Chris turned it on, the whole room illuminated slightly, making Chris feel a bit better.

"Whoa Chris, I just got an awesome idea."

"Yeah?" Chris responded.

"Totally!" Josh exclaimed, seeming excited.

"Well what is it?" Chris asked, slightly frustrated at all of the beating around the bush.

"So I've got some spray deodorant in the bathroom, use that with the lighter to make a flamethrower to unfreeze the lock!" Josh declared.

"Oh… like we used to do with the little army dudes!" Chris said, feeling reminiscent.

"Yup, the ones we used to melt! Just point it at the lock and then…"

"Bye bye frozen lock! Ok, so help me down from this thing…" Josh said before getting into position to jump down the window sill.

"Alright… let me just put my hand right here and… voila!" Chris said and gestured flamboyantly once his best friend reached the ground much gracefully than Chris had minutes earlier.

"My knight in shining armor." Josh said sarcastically.

"Yeah, let's get to that bathroom!" Chris said enthusiastically.

"Indeed, Godspeed pilgrim!" Josh said with a really shitty John Wayne impression.

Hannah and Mike made it back to the lodge with no issues, which is good considering what they'd heard in the woods. Once they made it back Mike gestured to the path leading back to the cable car station and Hannah nodded in agreement. They began a short walk in silence since they were both still shaken from the experience in the woods. It's not every day some bizarre… thing makes a loud noise in the woods and makes you have to leave a previously heartening experience. Hannah was the first to speak, which is surprising considering her normally shy personality.

"Mike about what you said earlier…" Hannah started cautiously.

"Yeah? I kinda got really deep there for a minute before we got interrupted by… whatever it was." Mike responded nervously.

"Well, I feel like if you're willing to give it a try I am; but if you ever pull any shit like you did last year again, I will make sure you have to hike your ass down the mountain!" Hannah declared fiercely.

"Ok… I guess that makes us a couple and don't worry, I'm through with that pranking crap. I'm a new man from here on out!" Mike said excitedly. The new couple hugged right there on the path before turning around and walking back, hand in hand. They're ready to face whatever the darkness has in store. The walk back was also a decent distance since they had been walking fast which gave Mike time to think. Obviously he was over the moon about the new relationship he had found himself in, but he was also startled by Hannah's newfound confidence. On one hand he liked her new spark, but on the other he would always miss the shy side that she had previously had. Mike guessed that Hannah had gotten a bit rougher around the edges since the prank, and that was something he would just have to get used to. There was also the matter of the thing that had made the noise in the woods. He was positive that it wasn't a normal creature of the woodlands, and he was sure Hannah felt the same way. Mike also had to figure out how to tell Jessica he had chosen Hannah over her. She wouldn't take it well he was sure, and he would be lucky if he got out of the conversation without a slap to the face. He might even get two if Emily had her way. Beth would probably threaten him as well, and tell him not to toy with her (technically) big sister's feelings. If everything went wrong, Mike's face would be very sore by tomorrow morning. Josh may even beat him up, as he had the previous year when he had found out about what he had done to Hannah. Well, "tried to" would be a better statement since Josh had gotten one good punch in before he was held back by a slightly more awake Chris…

Hannah should have been through the moon, and she was definitely excited to start a relationship with her crush of too- many- years- to- count. However there was a part of her that was hesitant because of what Mike had done in the past. To be fair, it wasn't his idea and he'd just gone along with it; but that didn't make it ok. Some of the others may also see this relationship as a bit sudden, but the truth was the opposite for anyone who knew them really well; like Sam, Beth, Josh, and Chris. Mike and Hannah were good friends despite Hannah's fairly obvious crush on him. It was Mike who had brought Hannah soup when she was sick with the flu and it was Hannah who showed Mike Animal Crossing New Leaf, which Mike got instantly addicted too since he loved being in politics and he got to be the mayor of that game. It was Hannah who had hugged Mike first in congratulations when he had won class president, and it was Mike who had cheered Hannah on during her tennis tournaments; Every. Single. One. It became a tradition and he even showed up after the prank. Not to mention her piano recitals which she always did well in even though she put more work into tennis than piano. And it was Hannah and Mike who had gone to prom together, whereas Sam had gone with Josh and Beth in a group (that had made for some fierce competition since Beth and Josh were always fighting over dances with Sam), Chris had gone with Ashley, Jess had gone with Adam (Mike's best friend), and Matt had gone with Emily. With those thoughts, they made it back to the lodge just in time to see something fly out the foyer door!

Authors Notes Ending: This took me soooo long lol. I first wrote it as a first draft in English class and it expanded from there in my notebook. After that I had to put it all onto my labtop which took a while before I added the last half or so of the section with Josh and Chris and then the whole second section with Hannah and Mike. I promise to give other characters some screen time next chapter but for now you've learned the ship I went with. Mannah op! (Is that the ship name idek?) I really loved writing this chapter though and I think the beginning was some of my strongest writing so far since my first sentences in the first two paragraphs both flowed very well imo. I also switched up having Josh "go do something else" since he didn't have as much screen time in canon with Chris as I would have liked. So more will come in the next chapter (I'll do a flashback) as well as having a Jess and Emily conversation I think along with more Hannah since I love writing her. I think other than them I'll have some Beth and Sam conversation but all of this is subject to change if I change my mind later. That's it for now, goodbye friends!


	11. Reminiscence

Chapter 11: Reminiscence

Chapters Notes: Gaaaah I'm getting Fanfic withdrawals. All of my favorite stories are taking longer than normal to get updated or are finished altogether. If there's a Brightside it gives me more time to write and post this story on AO3 (Archive of Our Own). Chapter 3 went up the day I'm writing this and it's cool to finally be able to use the account I have there. It's a neat system they've got going over there but the chapter summaries annoy me somewhat since I didn't have them written for the chapters before. Luckily one of my editors agreed to do them for me. I also use the term editor loosely since one of them has no experience at all (my best friend) and basically just fixes grammar mistakes (still eternally grateful for his help tho) and the other has only worked on one other story but she does do more than just grammar like calling out plot holes and things. There are also no reviews or new favoriters or followers today which makes me kinda sad but it's alright. Let's move on to the story, which will have quite a bit of the past as well as quite a bit of the future. Also there's a fairly graphic self- harm flash back along with thoughts of suicide in this chapter so if that offends you or whatever dip the fuck out. Onwards to victory my friends!

 **9 Hours Until Dawn:**

"So Josh, how did you and Chris get into the lodge to unfreeze the door?" Sam asked, curiously. Josh, Chris, and Sam were sitting by the fire in the lodge, with the others scattered around having their own conversations.

"Well ya see Sammy, it was a tail as perilous as the gods themselves. There were zombies, demons, and spirits of all kinds!" Josh responded with cheeky exaggeration.

"All I remember is us breaking a window open and climbing through…" Chris said, instantly bursting Josh's bubble.

"Chris, you're supposed to be backing me up on this." Josh said sternly.

"Yeah well, there was some interesting stuff in here. I guess that's what happens when no one has been in here for a year except for cops." Chris said casually.

"Are they still looking for that pyromaniac who started the forest fire back in the 90's?" Sam asked, concerned.

"Yeah… but he's definitely long gone by now. No one is stupid enough to stay in the same place where he committed a crime, ya know?" Josh said with firm conviction.

"That makes sense…" Sam said uncertainly. Sam isn't just brave, she's also very smart, and she knew the arsonist might still be in these woods, even if it is unlikely.

"Anyways, let us tell you about what we found when we got in here, Sam." Chris said to change the subject.

"Alright, go nuts!" Sam said excitedly.

"Cool, so we broke a window around back and climbed through, but you already knew that…" Josh started.

 **Just Minutes Before:** Josh and Chris were moving slowly through the still darkened house. They'd discovered that the light had broken due to the master breaker tripping, putting the whole house out of power.

"We need to get to the bathroom and then the basement." Chris said, knowing that there wouldn't be any power until they reset the breaker. Along with Josh's lighter, they had two cell phones that were plenty bright as well. So sight wasn't a huge problem, but they needed power to have a party!

"Yeah, let's get moving." Josh said, picking up speed.

"Slow down dude, we have all night." said Chris, slightly out of breath.

"There are lots of lovely ladies and gents out there who are very cold Chris, so let's pick up the pace." Josh said, still perfectly content to move at a slow jog.

"Fair enough, but I'm not in the best of shape, man." Chris muttered.

The two then noticed a picture of Hannah, Emily, Sam, and Mike before prom on a dresser. They all looked like they were having fun, but Hannah and Mike seemed slightly distracted by something in the photo.

"Jeez, maybe Mike really does like Hannah…" Chris said uncertainly.

"If Hannah can bring herself to forgive him, then I can too. But if he hurts her again I'll put him in the dirt." Josh's vocal tone descended into a low, gruff snarl as he spoke.

"I agree; if someone did that to my sister I'd have a hard time forgiving him too." Chris said sympathetically.

"How is Alexis anyways? I haven't seen her in a while." Josh asked, more lightheartedly.

"She's alright, just won a big track meet!" Chris said, realizing the irony of that statement.

"It's hilarious that she's a track star and you have the stamina of a sloth." Josh said with a sly grin.

"I can't argue with facts Josh; even if I'd like to." Chris responded, also grinning.

The two continued to the main bathroom and reached the staircase, where they began their ascent to the upper floors of the Washington lodge.

Along the way, they found a piece of newspaper that confirmed that there was a man who had once lived on Mount Washington and he was wanted for arson. They also saw a picture of the Washington clan as a whole: Beth, Hannah, Josh, Melinda, and Bob Washington were right there, staring back into the camera with happy smiles and a healthy glow.

"Still planning on following in your father's footsteps? Become a director one day? No change of heart since yesterday?" Chris asked curiously.

"Yep, that's the plan!" Josh responded, elated at the prospect. "And you still want to be a computer engineer?" Josh asked, somewhat sarcastically as they already knew the answer. It was what they were majoring in after all!

"Yeah, there's good money there. You know me, I'm the computer guy." Chris said.

"Yeah, man." Josh responded encouragingly.

The two arrived at the bathroom on the top floor and grabbed the deodorant can. They were startled by a dead wolverine that had found its way into the bathroom cabinet. How it got in and why it chose to die there was anyone's guess. One thing was certain, however: it hadn't been dead long since there was no smell or other signs of rot. Josh tossed the carcass out of a nearby window without a second thought. They turned to head back down to the foyer doors.

"Josh, follow my lead." Chris said with a mischievous grin.

"Well I usually prefer to lead but… if you insist." Josh said sarcastically.

Chris loudly bumped the foyer door and heard the girls outside start muttering, slightly spooked. Josh immediately understood what was going on but didn't feel overly comfortable with the idea of a prank this time around. He thought about it for a few moments with a frown on his face before deciding that this prank didn't have any malice and couldn't hurt anyone, so he made a spooky "woooooo."

"Hardy har, that's very cute you two." Sam said, equally amused and annoyed because she was cold.

Chris then proceeded to melt the lock off the door. Once everyone had gotten situated, Chris, Josh, and Sam went down to the basement and restored the power. That is how they all ended up warm and comfy in the foyer.

"Hey Josh, Hannah and I are gonna head up to the guest cabin for a while, if that's cool with you." Mike said after everyone had gotten situated and had started the party in the foyer. The music was blasting loudly from the state of the art surround sound system that the lodge came with, and most everyone was drunk with the exception of Sam, who was intentionally drinking modestly so she could watch over everyone, and Hannah, who wasn't a huge fan of drinking. Mike was positive that Chris had already busted out weed in one of the bedrooms. Chris enjoyed pot more than just about anyone else in the group, but he wasn't quite a stoner. He just enjoyed it casually. Mike was well aware that asking Josh was risky and carried far more queries than what was asked alone. If Josh said yes, then it meant he was willing to forgive Mike for what had happened and to give him another chance.

"Uh, yeah I guess. So, you and my sister huh?" Josh asked, treading the waters carefully.

"Yeah, she was willing to forgive me, I'm lucky she's so nice." Mike said, happy that the conversation was going well (He half expected it to turn into a fist fight.)

"Hannah never could get over you. I'm just glad she's happy. Have fun up there." Josh said with a grin.

"Thanks, man." Mike said before clapping Josh on the shoulder and leaving to find Hannah to tell her that Josh had given them the go ahead.

Josh went over to Sam, only to find that Beth was definitely flirting with her, which pissed Josh off a bit. When he was younger he never would have imagined that he'd be competing with his own sister for a girl. Their types were completely different, but Sam really was special. He was about to greet her before the alarm on his phone went off. Josh sighed deeply before walking into his room to take the medication that kept his mind in check. Sam was great, and she would still be there when he got back, but his mind might not be if he missed an alarm. He had to take them every 2 hours for the foreseeable future or he ran the risk of going nuts again. Josh shuttered with the memories and a flashback hit him.

 **178 Days Until Dawn:** Sam was driving over to The Washington's house at a speed that would make her mother faint. She couldn't bring herself to give a damn though; just minutes before, Hannah and Beth had texted her through completely separate conversations stating how Josh had seemed off. Coupled with the fact that Josh hadn't been to school all week, and the fact that it was so near to summer vacation, Sam realized that Josh must be off his meds again. She was usually the only one that could get him to take them again when he got like this, and ever since the prank they had been more and more frequent. She finally arrived and muttered to herself "God Josh, please be okay…"

She ran in and found Beth waiting for her in the living room.

"He's still in his room. Hannah is trying to open the door. Sam, I…" she trailed off.

"What is it? Did something else happen?" Sam asked, horrified at the thought that her friend of so many years might have been hurt.

"Yeah… Hannah and I, well, we found something this time." Beth said, and that was what Sam feared the worst.

"What, what did you find?" Sam asked, scared out of her mind for Josh.

"Sam, we found a suicide note hidden under the mat in the bathroom not 10 minutes ago. We think he didn't want anyone to find it until… anyways Hannah found it when she accidentally moved the mat after a shower." Beth finished.

Sam didn't finish the conversation and booked it to Josh's room where she found Hannah banging on the door, crying hysterically at the idea of what her brother could have done.

"Hannah, let me try to talk to him, ok?" Sam said softly.

"Ok, but if you can't convince him to open the door I'm calling the cops." Hannah said, Sam nodded. Sam then heard some frantic knocking coming from the downstairs front doors and knew it was Chris. She walked up to Josh's door and began to talk.

"Josh? It's Sam. Can you open up for me?" There was a seemingly infinitely long silence before…

Authors Notes Ending: The cliffhanger xD. Not much more to say, see you all next time.

Editor's Notes – Ending: Stardate 94605.49: Well here we are again, it's always such a pleasure. I was not expecting to be asked to edit again, but I wasn't doing anything important and his normal editor (I do not use the term loosely) was slammed with schoolwork or something. I was glad to see that KLil started using the correct formatting for dialogue as this chapter was much easier to read but his complete disregard for verb-tense consistency(I fixed it) is really annoying. As before, my main purpose here was to fix grammar, spelling, and the irritating repeated omission of commas and the like. Though I do not have any professional experience editing, I don't think its appropriate to say I have "no experience at all." If I may explain myself, I've had to do peer reviews a lot in my English classes and I think I'm more than qualified to edit as I got a 4 on the AP English 11 exam and I'm taking AP 12 currently and doing quite well. But I digress. If anyone is pissed because I "ruined the wolverine bit by having it be dead" then I apologize but I'm a man of logic and reason and the fact that a wolverine even got into the house when everything was closed/locked/frozen is ridiculous but I kept it in there in respect for the reference. Originally KLil wrote the wolverine as alive and I just can't get behind that especially since he just glossed over the details of how they handled it as if it's normal to have dog-sized animals in houses. -AFROKID538.


	12. Conflictions

Chapter 12: Conflictions

Authors Notes: There were a lot of reviews this time around O_O. I always enjoy hearing from you guys so I really appreciate it :D. I'm also thinking of starting a story based on some of my ridiculous experiences playing my favorite game Skyrim so let me know if that's something you all would be interested in. Let's move onto the reviews shall we?

Reviews: Smolbean chapter 1. Jan 25

This is actually a really good beginning, so don't feel insecure!  
It was good because you gave a reason the tattoo was important, and showed how it might affect the story, using the games own mechanics to prove your point!  
I really hope you finish this, because it seems like a pretty good AU. :)

Aww thanks! I appreciate all of the feedback Smolbean (great name btw haha) and I definitely intend to finish the story!

Smolbean2.0 chapter 2. Jan 25

This chapter was pretty good as well, but unfortunately I have some constructive criticism to impart;  
please don't write a chapter in one paragraph! It makes it rather hard to read if there is just one big block of text! Could you please consider skipping a line after typing out and introducing an idea, so that it's easier to read?  
Take, for example, a look at how I've set out my review, I introduced an idea or concept, skipped a line to define the beginning and end of that concepts reasoning, and explained how to use my reasoning in a similar fashion.

Thanks once again for the chapter!

I completely agree with your criticism and in more recent chapters have begun to format the chapters in a way that is much easier to read. Every time someone says something now the paragraph will end once the segment of that paragraph ends. The whole process for how I write chapters and get them edited now is much more streamlined and is a lot easier on the eyes for the reader. I appreciate the feedback and criticism as it makes me a better writer and also makes a better experience for the reader!

Smolbean3.0 chapter 3. Jan 25

This was an interesting chapter, so good job!  
It was insightful about how Sam views the Washington siblings and how the relationships in the group have changed after the prank.  
Though I do have to reiterate my views from the previous chapter about multiple paragraphs...  
But I know that with time you can get the hang of it!  
Another interesting plot device is the stalker mentioned at the end, although I think that you should be careful about whether or not you decide for this unknown to be The Stranger or a wendigo.  
For example, if the being is a wendigo, why did it not just attack her, or was it stopped by the spirits?  
If the being was The Stranger, why was he following her, did he notice the spirits intervention the previous year and become curious?  
I think that you could do a lot with the plot you currently have, but you need to make sure that it all makes sense and is relevant to the story.

I don't think there's any harm in telling you that the stalker was the Stranger. He still wants the Makkapitew dead after all and is also curious as to the spirits that saved Hannah and Beth last year so he chose not to reveal himself yet. Another thing that needs to be said is that the spirits won't be interfering as directly anymore since they feel like their favor to Sam was paid in full and the wendigo are a lot more plentiful than the spirits are. And like I said before in newer chapters the format is a lot more sleek so just tough it out and I promise the experience will be much better in that regard ;). If it's really bad though I can get one of my editors to go back and overhaul the old chapters but that would be a lot of work on their end so I hope it's not bad enough that it becomes necessary…

Guest chapter 11. Jan 25

Looks like this is getting intimate if I were Mike I would be all 'Bow Chicka Bow Wow'

Haha I don't think they'll do anything other than talk since they literally just started dating hours before. I know that teens will be teens and that Hannah was willing to make out with Mike before but… eh I don't know. Maybe then Hannah just got caught up in the heat of the moment and Mike was just being peer pressured. That's what I would like to believe at least. That and depending on how things go they may not have much time for kiss kiss times anyway haha ;). Onto the story!

 **178 Days Until Dawn:**

"Sammy… is that you? What are you doing here?" Josh asked, obviously confused.

"I came to see you of course. I heard you… erm… weren't feeling well so I booked it over." Sam said cautiously, treading the waters slowly.

"Hah, that's one way to put it Sammy. Come on in…" Josh regretted the decision to open the door the moment he did. His room was an absolute disaster. There were pills and syringes all over the floor and tons of fast food wrappers on his bed. His window was wide open even though it was the dead of summer and it was something like 95 degrees outside; he also had no fan on since the power was out so his room was a boiler.

"Josh… I think you should go to a new therapist. I found a great guy named Dr. Hill and he's willing to talk to you…" Sam said, steeling her nerves and holding her breath.

"Those guys are only in it for the money… but if you really want me to then I guess I'll give it a try." Josh responded, trusting Sam's judgment.

Sam threw her arms around Josh before bursting into tears, Josh blinked in astonishment. "Come on Sammy, I'm not that bad off…" Josh muttered before laughing awkwardly.

Sam froze in his arms and he could tell he had said the wrong thing. "Not that bad off? Then what about that _fucking_ note Hannah found in the bathroom, Josh? How do you expect me to believe you're ok when you write something like that! How do you think that made Hannah, Beth, and I feel?! Not to mention your parents and other friends? Come on Josh!" Sam blurted out in obvious anger and frustration.

"Wait… what note? Josh asked, completely confused. Sam searched into his eyes for any form of deceit…

 **9 Hours Until Dawn:** Josh frowned at the memories before moving back into the foyer to rejoin the party. To this day he had no idea how that note had gotten there, but he sure as hell didn't write it… he thought. It was in his handwriting but surely he'd remember writing something like that… right? He also noticed that Hannah and Mike had taken off for the guest cabin. He felt a moment of concern before brushing it off. Josh had promised Hannah he would try to be a bit less protective before the party and this was his way of showing that he trusted her. He then decided to try to relax and walked over to Sam.

"Hey Sammy, want to dance?" Josh asked in an attempt at casual banter, trying to ignore the quickening of his heartbeat.

"Sure, Josh!" Sam said; feeling somewhat giddy at the prospect. Sam couldn't deny her feelings for Josh, but she also sort of liked Beth's spunk. If she had to choose though, (which she hoped she wouldn't because she didn't want to have to break any hearts), she would have to choose Josh. They had too much chemistry and had spent too much time together to ignore. So, Sam and Josh went off to dance, fueled by alcohol, adrenaline, and excitement.

Mike was on the God damn moon. Here he was walking with Hannah to the guest cabin he had been to with Emily the past two times they had come up. Last time was the night before the prank and they'd done plenty that would make a priest cry tears of penance. However, that wasn't Mike's plan this time however as there would be plenty of time for that once they'd been dating for longer. Mike instead just wanted to talk and watch stupid movies and listen to Hannah play the piano and rant about tennis and life. He wanted to hear her talk about Animal Crossing and talk to her about how her collection of fish and bugs are going. One of the biggest reasons why he and Emily had called it quits was that they were too different. Mike had some insecurity that he masked with bravado which Emily saw as cockiness so she liked to knock him down a few pegs. This really weighed on Mike and caused him to outburst at times which caused a few big fights between them. Hannah was different though. She loved complimenting people and making them feel good which was just what Mike needed. Mike had a feeling that Matt would be better for her since he can take what Emily dishes out and keep her in check.

Hannah was very happy, but she had more than one motive for asking Mike to the guest cabin. She wanted to see what Mike would do when the two were alone. She knew that he knew that they had just started dating and shouldn't do anything too crazy but wasn't one hundred percent sure if he could keep it in his pants. It wasn't a deal breaker if he made a move but it would certainly be concerning if he did. She also thought it was a good way to let the others know that they were a thing now.

"Hey, Hannah." Mike said casually.

"Yeah?" Hannah asked, curiosity breaking the silence they'd had for the past couple minutes of walking. She fiddled with the keys to the cabin in her pocket absentmindedly while talking with Mike. (All three siblings had a pair of keys to the guest cabin and the cable car but only their dad had keys to the actual lodge since the foyer doors stay open all year. There's no way for anyone without keys to the cable car to get up there anyways.)

"Why did you want to go to the guest cabin? Trying to make a statement about us?" Mike asked cheekily.

"That and something else. Maybe if you're nice I'll show you what that something else is later." Hannah said, flirting.

Mike raised an eyebrow before saying, "I was under the impression we weren't gonna do anything like that tonight. Not until we've been dating for longer and are more comfortable together." Mike said hesitantly.

"You're more observant than people give you credit for, Mike. I'm glad we're on the same page here." Hannah said with a smile before wrapping her arms around the crook of his neck and embracing him right then and there on the trail to the guest cabin.

Beth was a little annoyed that Josh was dancing with Sam but brushed it off. Sam was her own woman and could do whatever she wanted. Beth was now talking with Emily and Jess; they'd all been friends since second grade (or first for Jessica) when Beth and Emily bumped into each other and dropped their books at school. Beth and Em immediately blamed each other and looked like they were about to have a God damn standoff like in the old Western movies when Jess ran in to mediate (she didn't know either of them at the time as well). From then, all three became the best of friends but the situation that had caused them to become friends in the first place repeated itself several times throughout their lives. Once, Beth and Emily both wanted the last box of toaster strudel and Jessica bought it and split it up among the three of them. Later on it was Starbucks, and then a spa date, and finally boys. Jessica had to learn to compromise in her friendship with those two because if she didn't they would tear each other to shreds. Beth and Em still loved each other though even when they wanted to rip each other's heads off. They also managed to cover up Jessica's irreverence, like when Jess nearly blew a job interview because she started flirting with the store manager. The three really did cover each other's faults well.

"You know that this is the first time a guy has chosen someone else over me?" Jess said somewhat abruptly. Clearly it had been something she had wanted to say for a while. She felt somewhat bitter and down.

"All I know is that if Mike hurts her again he won't live to hurt her a third time." Beth said, sounding eerily similar to Josh and what he had said earlier. They were both protective of Hannah even though she was technically older than Beth. It was part of why Hannah was trying to become more independent.

"I'd be pissed about it if he'd dumped me for her exclusively but when I was having feelings for someone else as well and we ended on decent terms it turned out alright. Besides, I'm happy with Matt." Emily answered with surprising sincerity. She also seemed distracted about something that both Beth and Jess picked up on but decided not to mention.

"I haven't really been able to enjoy the single life for a long time anyways. Maybe I can celebrate it for a while." Jess said casually.

"Yeah same here. To being single!" Beth said before holding up her drink for a toast.

Jess toasted as well but Em opted out for obvious reasons. The three continued to drink and dance and have a great time for a while, and Emily almost managed to forget about the horrible experience she'd had earlier that night. That was until Matt showed up. Don't get Em wrong, she was happy to see him but he was also a sure fire way to remind her of what had happened before.

"Hey, Beth. Jess." Matt said smoothly as he nodded to both.

"Hey Matt." The two said in unison before looking at each other and laughing.

"Mind if I borrow Em for a minute? I've got dating stuff to deal with, haha." Matt asked jokingly.

"Sure, go right on ahead." Jess said with a smile. It was no secret that Jess and Matt had a thing going a year or two ago but that was all water under the bridge now.

"Yeah, go nuts." Beth said distractedly. Matt was pretty sure that she was trying to see what Josh and Sam were doing.

"Thanks, guys." Matt said before gesturing for Em to follow him up the stairs where they wouldn't be interrupted.

"We have a major problem." Matt said as soon as they got there.

"What is it? Emily asked with an obvious note of concern resonating in her voice.

"I just saw another one of those… things outside. It's only a matter of time before someone else sees one. I think the only reason no one else has is because they don't know what to look for. We should warn them now." Matt said quickly and with strong emphasis. This is not a laughing matter.

"Yeah alright let's do i-"

"AAAAAH!" Emily was cut off by a loud scream coming from the foyer! They ran downstairs to find Ashley, looking like she had just seen a ghost.

"I'm telling you guys, I just saw a monster or something outside! I swear I'm not joking. I think I saw it before too but I thought it was a trick of the light at the time!" Ashley rambled off in hysterical panic.

"Very funny Ashley, but don't you think now is a pretty bad time for a prank considering what happened last year?" Jess said, obviously doubtful.

"Guys, she's telling the truth." Matt said, immediately seizing the situation.

"Yeah, we ran into one earlier. We didn't want to say anything then because we knew you'd think it was a joke or something." Emily continued.

"Yeah, sure. Very funny guys but the jokes over." Beth said. "Look I'll prove it."

She then proceeded to begin to walk outside.

"Beth! Get. Back. In. Here. _Now_!" Chris said with astonishing authority. "If Ashley says she saw something, even if it isn't a monster, it doesn't mean we just go strolling outside into whatever it is' hands! Wait a minute… where are Mike and Hannah?"

"Erm…" Josh seemed hesitant to say.

Chris asked with his newfound confidence, "Where are they? Tell me, Josh! This is important!"

"They went to the guest cabin. I didn't see any harm in it then…" Josh said softly, his normal happy go lucky personality gone.

"We need to get them back here. I'm going to find my big sister. Anyone else up for a little rescue trip?" Beth asked, remaining surprisingly calm.

"Someone needs to rescue that dumb oaf." Emily said, referencing Mike. "I'm in."

"My sister needs me, so I'm in." Josh said, steeling his nerves.

"I'm with Josh. Hannah is like a sister to me…" Chris volunteered solemnly.

"I'm going where Emily goes… naturally." Matt said simply.

"I'll make my way to the radio tower and call for help." Jessica volunteered, wanting to get off of this mountain as soon as possible.

"I'll help out Jess. No one should make that trek alone." Sam said before smiling at her genuinely.

"A blonde adventure then, haha." Jess said, trying to lighten the mood.

"I'll come with you two! Sorry to intrude on the blonde gimmick but you need someone with you who's seen this thing." Ashley added. They were right to have both groups have at least one person who had seen the monster.

"Wait, we should also have one person in each group who has a set of keys in case we need to make an emergency trip down the mountain." Sam noted.

"In that case, I'll go with Ashley, Sam, and Jess." Beth volunteered. "Josh, find our sister and keep her safe." She said, confident in her brother.

"Of course, Beth." Josh said, a bit of his own confidence restored.

Chris turned to Ashley and said, "Be safe Ash. I'll never forgive myself if you get hurt…"

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. But thanks for worrying about me." Ashley returned as she sweetly put a hand to his cheek.

And with that, the two groups went their separate ways. Ashley, Beth, Sam, and Jessica went to the radio tower to call for help since the phone lines were down due to the storm. The other group: Chris, Josh, Matt, and Emily went to find Mike and Hannah, hopefully unscathed.

"Did you hear that?" Mike asked cautiously.

"Yeah, it sounded like leaves rustling… probably a squirrel or something." Hannah responded. They were nearly to the cabin, having encountered a knocked over tree due to the storm that was stirring up and a mine shaft that they ventured through to get to there since the path was blocked by the aforementioned tree. They had also seen a small shack that both of them knew wasn't the cabin. They kept walking and found the source of the noise.

"Huh, a moose." Mike said curiously…

Chapters Notes Ending: Well this chapter certainly took a turn. My thought process is that if the Makkapitew wasn't slain in its old body then the other wendigo would be "empowered" so to speak. Not necessarily physically but knowing that your God- King hasn't been beaten makes you feel a lot better about your tribe… no? So with that logic in mind it makes me feel like the other wendigo would be harder to be caught by the Stranger and so they didn't get imprisoned… at least not as many of them. This resulted in more wendigo being seen earlier on alerting the group to their presence. I don't know… this chapter was a risk since I diverged so far from canon and made an interesting twist. Let me know what you think!

Editor's Notes – Ending: Stardate 94680.77: Third time might be the charm. There was less to change this time around although it's probably due to the fact that KLil was awake when he wrote it this time and the fact that I'm half asleep editing, most likely a combination of the two. Verb-tense consistency was a lot better this time around but suddenly all the narration became present tense around when Beth goes to talk to Jess and Emily. Also, commas continue to be omitted by the dozens, most notably and annoyingly the all-important oxford comma. He included it at least twice that I noticed though so I know he's not leaving it out on purpose. Anyway, I still hope that I don't become the perma-editor but the other one is slammed writing chapter summaries for another website, so y'all might have to get used to the way I do things. A chilling thought, no? – AFROKID538


	13. Unsung Heroes and a Lack of Capes

Chapter 13: Unsung Heroes and a Lack of Capes

Authors Notes: A bit of an update with the whole editor's thing is necessary so here goes. My best friend, also known as AFROKID538 or whatever he calls himself (I tried telling him the nickname was ridiculous but he's stubborn) is still editing when he can. However as you may have known the other who for the sake of privacy we shall call "E" stopped editing because she got a job. This is a bit of a letdown because she didn't give me any warning but she was doing me a favor to begin with so I can't be too mad. In other news since I'm starting this chapter very early this time around I gave next to no time for reviews so obviously there won't be any right now. I'll go back and add them if some get posted before I finish (which is certainly possible). I also went back and fixed a minor continuity fail in chapter 5. Basically in it I had Mike break up with Emily and later I changed my mind and had them break it off on good terms. I forgot to change the first instance of this though. If anyone notices anything like that in previous chapters please let me know so I can fix them! There's one last topic that needs discussing. I got a new favorite! :D So here's the favoriter:

Jomar857

01-29-2017

As always much appreciated Jomar and I thank you for putting faith into my little piece of the fandom I call home. There's a new follower so here's that:

Bookreader525

02-01-2017

Thank you so much Bookreader! This is actually the author of one of my favorite UD fanfictions ever tilted "Until We Meet Again" and just wrote an amazing new one- shot titled "The Pizza Guy" so be sure to check those out! Also I wanted to note that while I've tried my best to add some degree of conflict to the story, if you all wanted to see more drama within the group instead of as much wendigo panic, let me know and I'll see what I can do. I'm willing to go either way honestly, one way being the group continues to cooperate fairly well and actually gets stuff done. Naturally the other would then be someone cracks under pressure *stares at Ashley and Mike* and does something drastic that could cause repercussions. Now I'm not necessarily saying that I'll have them literally kill Emily because of paranoia about zombie land but something a bit more realistic might suffice. Anyways let's get on with it to the story. *Update* there was indeed a couple of reviews so here it is:

Poptarts1121 chapter 12 . 6h ago (as of 9:50 PM January 31, 2017)

Damn your editor is harsh lol! But it's ok they're funny. I think U should make chaps longer but good job otherwise I love this

Lol he is a pretty funny guy! He's always pushing me to be a better writer so his critique of me is perfectly justified. I definitely don't have good verb tense usage or comma placement yet and am working to improve! As for the chapters getting longer that's a bit of a problem. I start my job on Friday and once that starts my free time will go down the toilet, so to speak. The chapters have been consistently getting longer but I don't think that will continue for a long while since 3000 words seems fine to try and stay at. Of course if I really find my stride and go nuts then they may go longer but that's no guarantee.

Bookreader525 chapter 12 . Feb 1

Wow! I don't think I've popped in here since, like, chapter 2 or 3? I love where you've taken this story since then. Keep on writing great stuff :) Also, thank you so much for the comments on UWMA and Pizza Guy! I'm glad you like them.

I appreciate it! I've always loved your material and am excited for what you write in the future. Let's move on to the story now…

 **8 Hours Until Dawn:** "Things have been chaos since last year. I don't know what kind of catalyst was introduced last winter but it made the Wendigos go absolutely feral. They've always been little more than animals but they always had a set structure and way of hunting that just went out the window. They will not stop until everyone on this mountain is dead or converted... We need to get off of Mount Washington and _never_ return…" Quoth a man, his face a broken shadow of what it should have been – it was the face of a man who had stared down death himself.

 **About Ten Minutes Before:**

"How far out is the guest cabin again? I remember it being less of a trek…" Chris asked with equal parts curiosity and annoyance.

"It was before a tree fell in the path that was too big to move. We had to take an alternate path. The only other way is through the mines and they're derelict." Josh explained.

Chris, Josh, Emily, and Matt were moving swiftly through the circuitous path that led to the guest cabin, keeping an eye out for Hannah and Mike. The snow had picked up quite a bit almost immediately after they left the lodge… of course.

"I'm surprised they decided to go at all. The lodge has just as much privacy in the guest bedrooms…" Matt said, attempting to ease this tense situation.

"I think it has more to do with the idea of being completely alone, instead of anyone being able to walk in on you at any moment." Emily said, understanding why Mike and Hannah decided to go to the guest cabin. Chris chimed in,

"Yeah but that doesn't mean anyone can't just make the same walk. Remember when Jess and Beth pranked you two years ago?"

"Yeah, I remember. Mike and I were watching Netflix and they stole my phone when I went to the bathroom after he had fallen asleep. I was convinced there was a ghost." Emily chuckled reminiscently.

"Those were simpler times…" Josh said somberly. The four walked in silence for some time with Matt and Emily behind Josh and Chris. It was lucky that Mike had remembered to turn on the generator when he had set off with Hannah or the four that were pursuing them would have had to waste precious time powering it up.

Of course it had to start snowing heavily the moment Beth, Sam, Ashley, and Jessica started their trek to the radio tower. Ashley and Jess even suggested turning back and waiting for the snow to die down, but Beth and Sam wouldn't hear any of it. They both insisted that the snow would only get worse if they turned back, so the group pushed on.

"It's fucking cold out." Jessica blurted in frustration as she took up the rear of the group.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious for your insightful words of wisdom." Beth fired back, not wanting to deal with Jess' bullshit today.

"Ok sorry… jeez." Jessica muttered, suddenly feeling very small.

"The radio tower isn't too much further, we can make it." Sam said, struggling to maintain sanity in the small posse.

"What if we run into one of those... _things_?" Ashley asked nervously.

"Remember what Matt and Emily said, if we freeze they won't attack us." Sam reminded them, calmly and smoothly.

"That was only one time… maybe that one had something wrong with it." Jessica suggested.

"I doubt that, but even if so, it's the only choice we have." Beth claimed.

The group continued their march to the radio tower in silence, not noticing the man with the flamethrower on his back approaching them from behind…

"Well _that_ was certainly exciting…" Hannah yelled out, breathless and confused.

"It _was_ something alright. Are you ok?" Mike asked, an obvious note of concern in his voice.

"I'm fine, but what the hell _was_ that thing?" Hannah asked, now sounding even more perplexed.

"Had to be a bear, those things are stupidly fast." Mike said uncertainly.

"What if it gets in here?" Asked Hannah, justifiably shaken.

"I'm pretty sure bears can't open cabin doors." Mike said reassuringly.

"Jess told me about a bear that opened a car door once back at the lodge. She saw a video online" Hannah said anxiously.

"Really? Well this isn't the… uh… internet. This is real life." Mike said.

"I guess you're right. Let's watch some Netflix!" Hannah suggested.

"Alright, cool." Mike sat down next to Hannah and put his arm around her. They turned on the TV while a Wendigo prepared to make its final move outside in the heavy snow.

Chapters Notes Ending: So this chapter is the shortest I've written in a while but there's a reason. Not only did I have massive writers block but I also started a new semester in school so I was busy getting off to a good start. I also needed the chapter uploaded soon because I was falling very behind in that regard. I hope you all enjoyed none the less.

Editor's Notes – Ending: Stardate 94718.99: And so it was: despite his best efforts, AFROKID became KLil's perma-editor. He was stricken with great disgust as he realized that he would now be spending interminable amounts of time correcting another man's mistakes for the entertainment of about 30 people on the internet. Kidding, of course. I am happy to help out but KLil has a tendency to finish chapters at the worst possible moments. I don't remember the circumstances of last chapter but I know it was late when I did it. For this chapter, however, I was at the studio recording an album with my church band literally all day. I got home at about 11:40 (2340 for those of you who use military time) intending to immediately feel my bed's warm embrace but instead my eyes were stabbed by the harsh light radiating from my computer monitor. I was, however, pleased to find no verb-tense errors and only a few missing or superfluous commas. Most of it this time was fixing phrases and varying the diction to make it flow better. Anyway, looks like y'all are stuck with me, so let's try to make it as painless as possible, for the good of all of us. Except the ones who are dead. But there's no sense crying over every missed-comma, you just keep on trying til you can't take the drama. And the chapter gets done, and it should be quite fun, for the people who are still alive! (I apologize for that but I couldn't resist.) – AFROKID538


	14. You Take All of the Pain Away

Chapter 14: You Take All of the Pain Away

Authors Notes: So I started my job. Don't expect chapters of 3000 the words and (mostly) weekly updates anymore because I'm just way too busy. It's my final semester of my senior year and I have no idea what I'm doing honestly. Anyways Mr. Editor has (not) happily agreed to edit every chapter for me so that's good. There is one review today and no new favoriters or followers so let's see what he or she has to say shall we?

Guest chapter 13 . Feb 12

Oh they just don't KNOW what trouble they both are in

I don't fully understand the context of this honestly… Do you mean Hannah and Mike are both unaware of the trouble they are in? That's very much true… Or is this some sort of revelation that you didn't know before? Either way thanks for posting! *I saw something interesting on a Skyrim fanfic I read yesterday that credited the song listened to the most by the writer. If this is something you guys would be interested let me know!*

Editor's Notes – Supplemental: There was an opportunity to have a character's thought's conveyed through direct quotation from his internal monologue and KLil doesn't have a way to convey thoughts separately from dialogue, especially when it's an aside during a conversation. So, to differentiate from dialogue whenever a private thought appears, the thought will be denoted with brackets in place of quotation marks. As an example: [I can't believe that I had to implement a system for thoughts since KLil never determined if his narrator was omniscient or limited.]

 **8 Hours Until Dawn:** "What the fuck… what the _actual_ fuck?!" is what Sam wanted to say… but knew that she had to stay quiet and stay completely still or else that thing would make her its lunch. She also knew that Jess, Ashley, and Beth were all doing the same thing she was, which was essential for their continued survival. Sam would have guessed that Jess would have cracked under pressure and run for it by now but… oh shit. Sam heard a small snap under her foot and didn't need to look down to know what happened. Just like Han Solo in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, she had stepped on a twig at the worst possible time. The creature's head whipped straight towards her and she tensed up even more than before, not even daring to breathe. The wind itself seemed to be withholding: waiting in anticipation. Sam also got her first look at the monster her friends had been talking about. It towered over her: its body an emaciated inhuman husk. It lumbered around on all fours as if it were some sort of human-spider chimera – and it could climb just as well. Sam had seen it skulk up a tree and quietly signaled for everyone to freeze. The beast had gray peeling skin and no hair whatsoever. Its teeth were jagged and sharp, but none of that truly shook Sam. Its eyes were what disquieted her soul. They were a ghostly gray, devoid of all signs of life. It was like looking into a corpse's eyes, and Sam knew that if she managed to survive this, she would never again take for granted being able to see the life in people's eyes. Sam continued to stay perfectly still and prayed to whatever God or gods might have been listening that her friends would make it out alive.

"Finally! Jesus that hike felt like it took forever!" Matt proclaimed as the rescue squad arrived at the guest cabin, but something was wrong.

"Wait… there's no lights on in the cabin…" Emily noted.

Josh, Chris, Emily, and Matt busted inside to find Hannah and Mike asleep on the couch, the television still on in the background.

"Well that explains why the lights were off." Emily said casually. "Hey guys, wake up!" she then said, shoving Mike.

"Em? What the hell are you doing here?" Mike asked, confused. Hannah slowly stirred.

"Guys, we know this is going to sound crazy but… something… _else…_ is on this mountain." Chris said in a deadly serious tone. This was out of character for him, and it chilled Mike and Hannah.

"Some _thing_? Not some _one_?" Hannah asked with a nervous laugh.

"Well… that _would_ explain the thing that chased us earlier. We thought it was a bear but maybe not." Mike said, reading the severity of the situation.

Josh's eyes were immediately thrown wide open and he ran to Mike in concern. "How long ago?"

"Right before we got here. You don't think it could still be around, do you?" Mike asked uncertainly.

"We need to get out of here _now_. There's no way that thing would just let you escape." Josh said, taking charge.

"Wouldn't it be smarter to just stay here? How could it get in?" Emily asked before… One of the creatures crashed through the window and snatched her!

"OH! HOLY SHIT!" was the last thing the group heard Emily say before she was ripped through the window and out into the cold snow…

The group burst outside, and what they saw was absolutely astonishing.

Jack was exhausted, which was nothing new. What was new was that the wendigos were acting like they had a personal god damn vendetta against those stupid teens. Jack didn't know why either, and that pissed him off. They were also acting much more aggressively than normal, which was saying something considering they're fucking wendigos. Usually they would try tp weed out the weakest target, but grabbing that girl straight out of the cabin while 5 other people were there? That was almost unheard of. Luckily Jack had managed to take the beast by surprise, knock it down, and torch it right after the girl had gotten pulled. What wasn't quite as lucky was that now he had a bunch of teens looking at him like he didn't have a head.

"Erm… what's up? [Damn! I am bad with people!]"

"You just fucking saved me and killed a monster in the process and the first thing you can think of to say is 'what's up?'" Emily blurted, somehow both accusatory and thankful.

"…Yeah, you're welcome for that by the way." Jack said after a long, awkward silence.

"Anyways, you seem to know what you're doing, so could you _please_ explain to us what those things are?" Chris asked, trying to regain his composure in light of recent events.

"Fine, but first let's get indoors; this storm is terrible." Jack agreed.

So Josh, Chris, Emily, Matt, Hannah, Mike, and Jack all crammed themselves into the small guest cabin and Jack told his story after they all exchanged introductions.

"I've been here fighting those things that you call monsters for coming on 20 years now. But let me tell you, those things ain't monsters, because monsters do the things they do for fun and pleasure. Those creatures don't attack and eat people for fun. They do it for survival." Jack said eerily.

"Survival? How can monsters like _that_ kill people for survival?" Matt asked, perplexed.

"They need to get people to commit the act of cannibalism by subtlety influencing their behavior. After a person does that, a wendigo spirit can take over the human body. Once a wendigo takes over a body, there's no getting that person back. It's the wendigo's own form of reproduction, in a manner of speaking. It's a fate worse than death for the unlucky son of a bitch who gets possessed because they're stuck in a sort of limbo between life and death. To my best guess at least." Jack continued.

"So if a wendigo can only take over a body if someone eats another person, then we just won't eat people… duh." Emily said defiantly.

"That would be great if it were that easy. Imagine being on your deathbed, and someone tells you that they can save you, over and over and over again. It would be pretty damn tempting to take the deal if you don't know better, or even if you do. That's what it's like with a wendigo spirit whispering in your ear. Not to mention that wendigos are immortal. If you kill one's physical form then it just reverts to its spirit form until another unknowing person comes wandering up to my mountain and gets themselves trapped. Then all the wendigo has to do is get its buddies to dangle a body in front of the person until they're hungry enough to eat it. That's why my job is never done. I've been trying to trap them in cages, but eventually they'll always escape." Exhaustion and despair showed on Jack's face as he finished his assertation.

"Then how do we kill one permanently?" Josh asked, equally curious and terrified.

"I don't think we can… the curse on this mountain makes sure of that." Jack said somberly.

"Well… what if we lifted the curse?" Hannah said, speaking for the first time since Jack had arrived.

"I've tried everything I and every Native American within a 500 mile radius could think of, not to mention every book, movie, TV show, or god damn comic book could come up with. If there was a way to lift the curse, I would have found it." Jack said, defeated.

"Maybe the way to lift the curse IS to purge all of the wendigos. Maybe if we destroy all of their physical forms the wendigos would just cease to be…" Josh suggested.

"That might be it, yet it's impossible for one man. I don't even know if I could take on the Makkapitew alone, much less the dozen wendigos I _don't_ have in chains as we speak." Jack said, but with a bit more of a spark in his eye than he had had before.

"Wait… just how many wendigos have you captured over the years?" Emily asked. Her eyes widened at the thought. Jack grinned triumphantly yet menacingly before continuing.

"Good question… maybe fifty? That's not counting the ones I've had to kill. In all I'd say I've defeated maybe… a hundred? But one thing I have to say is that things have been chaos since last year. I don't know what kind of catalyst was introduced last winter but it made the Wendigos go absolutely feral. They've always been little more than animals but they always had a set structure and way of hunting that just went out the window. They will not stop until everyone on this mountain is dead or converted... We need to get off of Mount Washington and _never_ return…" Jack finished, his earlier bravado gone.

Chapters Notes Ending: This chapter probably blows but that's ok because I'm tired and work is a bitch. I had to work the entire department by myself when I've only been in training for a week since two people called out. I didn't know what I was doing and it was awful lmao. I hope you guys enjoyed as always. Take it away Editor!

Editors Notes – Ending: Stardate 94757.24: There was one Oxford comma missing in this one but that was about it. I've been trying to get KLil to stop forgetting it but he pretty much exclusively wrote this last chapter late at night so I can't be too hard on him. One interesting thing, though: As soon as Jack came in KLil randomly decided to start writing in the present tense which meant I had to fix and rephrase everything so it made sense, but he switched back with just as little warning a few paragraphs later; the human mind is a strange thing. Another interesting thing is that I started editing within 10 minutes of KLil finishing the chapter so the "Take it away" was a little too direct if you ask me, but hey, who ever asks for my opinion? – AFROKID538


	15. Do You Believe in Destiny?

Chapter 15: Do You Believe in Destiny?

Authors Notes: Alright so just so you guys know I never meant that the group and Jack would fucking kill all of the goddamn wendigos singlehandedly. What I meant is that they could notify the authorities and have them handle it. That's what one of the reviews for this chapter has been about. Sorry if there was some confusion but I thought that the hinting was going in that direction. Also I'm still working on a way to not have Jack get arrested the moment he comes down the mountain since he's still technically a wanted felon. In other news, my job sucks ass but that's ok since I make bank from it. I'm not planning on staying there for that long anyways. I just want to make enough that I have some cushioning for college while also being able to afford a new pc (mine currently is going down the toilet fast). I'm also working on a new one shot (or story no clue yet) based around the group's exploits the summer before this specific story starts. It will be a lot more drama oriented than this story which is more adventure and action oriented so if that's your Cup o' Joe then get excited for it! It'll be stepping out of my comfort zone as well since my writing style has always favored narration and I don't want to do as much of that for the new one shot (or story). Let's move on to the reviews.

Reviews:

Guest chapter 14 . Feb 26

Sure they all might get off the mountain but one thing is for certain no one will believe them unless they were to get that one confidential report file in the game that showed the transformation and maybe some other stuff that would link the Wendigos

True… unless a certain someone has plenty of pictures and other evidence of said wendigos. Jack has been doing this a long time and has studied these creatures/ monsters extensively which means he would have plenty of evidence.

Guest chapter 14 . Feb 26

They can't hope to kill them all

See above please. Onto the actual story! *Edit* One more review many days after the last time I started writing this chapter because of trouble in my personal life. Here it is now.

Guest Reader chapter 14 . Mar 12

This is a great story, and one of my favourites. I really like the Hannah/Mike pairing. They actually make a really likeable couple I must say. Would like to see more of how Mike and Hannah's new relationship builds and strengthens. Especially when dealing with the Wendigos. I am very intrigued to know what is causing the Wendigos to be so feral, and how it affects the rest of the story. Can't wait for the next chapter; keep up the good work my friend :)

Awww this made me smile. Thank you so much for the kind words. I never really knew I had any people who genuinely liked my story enough to call it a "favorite" and it really reinforces my confidence in my abilities as a writer. So for that, I will be eternally grateful.

 **8 Hours Until Dawn:** Sam had gotten beyond lucky; she had just been served up a god damned miracle on a silver platter by whatever deity or higher power created the planet. She was absolutely shaken to the bone by what had just transpired, but the bottom line was that everyone was alive, and Sam was thankful, regardless of the circumstances. The Wendigo had been inches from her face when it made its blood-curdling screech right in front of her. The thing's breath was absolutely rancid and foul, like a fucking animal had died in its mouth. It occurred to Sam that this may have actually been the case, but that was beside the point. She wasn't certain of it, but something had appeared behind the Wendigo. It shimmered, almost completely transparent, and was beyond massive, with a light golden hue to it. The thing was at least 30 feet tall, and seemed to be some kind of giant, but somehow wasn't menacing. This giant was almost beautiful in a bizarre way, but the Wendigo didn't see it as beautiful at all. Sam didn't realize at the time, but it would be the only time she would see a Wendigo with fear in its eyes. It tore off at an inhuman gait, but the translucent form shimmered out of existence and reappeared in front of the Wendigo before crushing it with its massive hand, moving faster than what seemed possible for its size. That was the last Sam saw of it before it winked out of existence and disappeared, but not before it turned and gave her what she thought was a look of approval. Of course, since the giant's only facial features were two golden eyes, Sam only _felt_ approval from it, like it had projected its emotions towards her.

It took the four girls some time to be able to regain a steady breathing pattern but everyone was, for the most part, unharmed. After they had recovered and were headed back towards the lodge, Sam attempted to mention the giant she had seen.

"So… does anyone have any clue what that thing was?" Sam asked, puzzled by the surreality of the giant.

"The monster? We know as much as you do, Sam." Jess said, shooting a confused glance over in Sam's direction.

"No… the giant golden titan thing that killed it? It was right there. Kinda hard to see since it was barely visible, but it was definitely there." Sam said, with equal confusion.

"Very funny, Sam, but this isn't the time for jokes. We would have seen something like that." Ashley said, frustrated with all the bullshit she had been through.

"Sam, are you feeling alright? Did the monster hurt you at all?" Beth asked with uncharacteristic concern. This night was fucking everyone up badly.

"Yeah I'm fine; maybe I was just seeing things." Sam conceded.

"Alright, well let's hurry. I don't want to run into any of those things again." Ashley said nervously. All four picked up the pace.

This night had taken such a ridiculous turn that Matt wasn't really sure what was happening anymore. There were monsters trying to kill his friends, a stranger trying to kill the monsters, and half of his friends still out on a mission to the radio tower to call for help, missing. Josh and Chris were really freaking out since Sam, Beth, and Ashley hadn't made it back yet. Mike was equally nervous about Jess. Jack had recently taken off to look for the girls, insisting that he would move faster if he was alone. Everyone reluctantly, so now no one had anything to do but wait; the drinks and music from earlier long forgotten.

"Guys, try and get some sleep alright? I'll keep first watch." Josh said after about a quarter hour had passed. His constant staring out the window and nervous tapping made it clear that he was not going to be able to sleep until his friends returned safe.

"Josh, I don't think anyone will be able to sleep tonight." Emily said.

"Fair enough Em, fair enough." Josh said somberly. So it was, the group continued to wait, powerless to help their friends in any way.

Authors Notes Ending: Lol so I know this is late and I'm sorry but it's been a ridiculous couple of weeks with work and so I hope you all forgive me.

Editors Notes – Ending: Stardate 94822.67: You know how I said that KLil always finishes at the worst times? This is a worst time. I'm hella busy this week since I have to write a research paper, I'm in crunch time on a game I'm developing for a school project, I've got to get all my missing work/redos in before grades close, and I gotta get gud at calculus since I can't fail or else I won't be able to go to Wentworth. To be fair, KLil _has_ had a rough few weeks. I won't go into detail but basically everything is screwing him over. That probably explains why this chapter was written almost completely in the present tense and with 7th grade level imagery/sensory details. I guess I'll just be thankful I haven't had to fill any major plot holes since the wolverine. Thanks for absorbing 2 hours of my time, but hey, it means a lot to him and he deserves some amount of satisfaction right now. – AFROKID538


	16. The Calm Before

Chapter 16: The Calm Before

Authors Notes: Yeah so work sucks but that's ok because I have all of you lovely readers to come back to. I also started feeling self- conscious about this story recently because friends in real life started asking to read it besides my editor. He doesn't count since he's going to be critical of me regardless and he's also my best friend. I'm just nervous the story isn't good enough but I am trying to not overthink things as much and just sort of go with how things work out from now on in life. I hope everyone who reads it likes the story . Also some of the things I talk about in the authors notes are personal and the people who read this aren't necessarily close enough with me for me to feel comfortable having them read them. It will certainly be interesting that's for sure. I also do this weird thing where my personality will radically change based on who's presence I am in so people will read this story and be like "this doesn't seem like KLil at all" and I'll be like "awkward but yeah it's me". Anyways let's move on to the reviews.

Revision chapter 15 . Mar 23

Hello it is nice to meet you again, so I'm gonna guess that thing was some kind of God of some kind, and also wouldn't it be too big because you said it 30ft tall and if that was one of the smaller Wendigos it would have to be at least 7 or 8 ft. while the Makkapitew would have to be 10-12ft tall

Ayy Revision it's nice to see you again as well. To answer your question I don't know if the mysterious entity can be "too big" because unless he literally weighs so much that he will fall through the earth he should be able to function just fine. The entity can easily crush a 7 or 8 foot tall wendigo with his fist or even just step on him if he is 30 feet tall so I think it makes sense.

Revision chapter 15 . Mar 24

Also I'm pretty sure the King Kong from 2005 was 25ft tall

Revision chapter 15 . Mar 23

And you were right you would expect less reviews from me

I combined these last two since they are very short. For the first one I have no idea how big King Kong is and I'm fairly certain any mention made of him was done by my editor, if at all. I tried googling it for curiosity's sake and found varying sources as well so your guess is as good as mine lol. As for the last one always keep in mind that just complimenting the story is still a review in my book haha. I'll never complain if you guys want to also note what I'm doing right along with what I could improve on. Story time now! *Edit* there's two new followers that also favorited! Thank you both so much! :D

kingvlad2011

03-28-2017

skyfall007

03-30-2017

 **365 Days Until Dawn:** Josh was beyond excited: he was entering the realm of absurdity. His dream, and by extension his friends' dream as well, was finally being born into fruition. All the years he had invested into begging, pleading, and being an all-around nuisance towards his parents were finally paying off. His friends shared his hype of course, but there was some drama unfolding that Josh was seriously hoping wouldn't ruin the weekend. At the moment, Josh was driving along the highway towards the lodge. It was always a pain to get from their Washington State homes (the irony that their last name was also Washington had not been lost on them) into the Alberta- British Columbia border (in the Canadian Rockies) to get to the Washington lodge. They had every detail considered and had all bought passports in preparation years prior. Chris called moments later, presumably because he had gotten lost once again. Chris was generally a really smart dude and Josh was very grateful to have him as his best friend but the guy had absolutely no sense of direction.

"Hey bro! What's up?" Josh asked, answering the phone.

"Hey Josh, I got lost on the way up." was the response that whirred in from Chris' side, accompanied by a sigh of annoyance.

"No problemo, Sir Lostalot. What road are you on?" Josh asked cheerfully.

"Umm, let me check my GPS… aha! I'm right outside Calgary! Also how come your family had to buy a lodge over 14 hours away from home?! We always have to stop and spend the night in shitty hotels!"

"You ask me that question every year Chris. My answer will always be 'because we did.' Besides, we normally take a plane there just weren't any flights scheduled this year! As for you being lost, it's impossible for you to be outside Calgary because that would mean you drove the wrong way for like 5 hours."

"Oh… let me check again. Hmmm… Ok I see what I did wrong: I was holding my GPS upside down."

"Please tell me you're joking, Chris…"

"Yeah I was just messing with ya!" Chris responded jovially.

"Ok… and where are you?" Josh asked, giving a sigh of resignation.

"Ummm" Chris began uncertainly…

The two continued their banter for the next half hour or so. Josh was sure that Chris reverted back to a 5 year old when it came to directions. Eventually they agreed to meet up and Chris followed Josh the rest of the way…

Mike was feeling conflicted as he made the second half of the long trek up to the Washington lodge, which was nothing new… except this time he was thinking about Emily. Mike had known forever that Hannah liked him, but recently he had started to reciprocate those feelings… a bit. Emily wasn't abusive by any means but she certainly wasn't nice 100% of the time, and Jess wasn't exactly an angel herself. Mike was getting tired of all of the rage from Em and all of the blind loyalty from Jess and was considering calling it quits. He drove in silence for some time before Emily called him.

"Hey babe, what's up?" Mike asked once he answered the phone.

"I was just bored, so I called." Emily said, bluntly.

"Oh… well how are you?" Mike asked somewhat awkwardly.

"I'm good. Jess is driving now though." In the background Mike could just make out a little "Hey Mike!" from Jess.

"In that case tell her I said hi!" Mike responded enthusiastically.

"Already done, have you made it to the lodge yet?" Emily asked curiously.

"Not yet, I'm about 20 minutes out." Mike responded.

"Cool, wait for me by the cable car?" It didn't really sound like a question.

"Sure babe, top or bottom?" Mike asked.

"The bottom. See you there." Emily said before hanging up. Mike sighed before putting on some music to clear his head…

Beth had finally made it to the lodge after a 7 hour binge (the group would always stop at a motel for the night after the first 7 hours) and wasn't surprised when she was one of the first ones there. The only other person there was Josh and he was busy laying out booze on the kitchen table.

"Hey Josh." Beth said casually.

"Hey sis, can you go turn on the hot water down in the basement?" Josh asked, precariously balancing 3 beers he went to put down.

"Sure, any idea when everyone else is gonna show?" Beth asked.

"All I know is Chris is gonna be dead last… again. He got lost." Josh said with a grin and a shake of his head.

"What else is new? Be right back." Beth walked downstairs to turn on the water. The lights were out and she quickly moved to flip them on, but it did little to stop the eerie tinge of foreboding the basement always evoked. As the lights flickered to life, the room was cast in an ominous dim glow. This marginality of illumination only added to Beth's nervousness, as the jagged shadows now being cast were no better than the thick dark that choked the room before. She made her way over to the boiler and began her work, having to remember and execute the order in which to press the numerous buttons. It took her but a minute to complete her task since she had done it ever since she was a little girl. When she was finished, she turned around to see a figure in a freaky Medusa mask looming over her! She screamed loudly.

This was, of course, before she realized that the figure was bent over, and was that… _laughing_ she heard?

"Ah man, I got you so good, haha!" Beth recognized Chris' voice and rose up to punch him, which he allowed her to do freely.

"Did not! I wasn't even that scared. Also you're a dick." Beth added, both amused and on edge.

"You were totally freaked, Beth, and you know it." Chris said relentlessly.

"Yeah maybe a bit. Did anyone else show up while I was down here?" Beth inquired.

"Yeah, Mike and Emily are upstairs…" Chris said in a surprisingly somber tone.

"Ok why the change in attitude? Something up? Also Josh said earlier that you would be the last one here which means he knows about this." Beth deduced cleverly.

"Right you are sis." Josh said as he came down the stairs from the first floor.

"You're a total dick for this stunt, you know that?" Beth said with a bit of venomous humor.

"Definitely, now let's go entertain our party guests. Viva la party!" Josh said, and the three of them made their way upstairs. Unbeknownst to them, this night will bring more surprises than what anyone could expect…

Editor's Notes – Ending: Stardate 94852.83: I just realized that I'm gonna have to be doing this through college given KLil's current time estimates. Editing is my favorite way to spend a Saturday night though, hands down. Kappa. – AFROKID538


	17. What Kind of World

Chapter 17: What Kind of World

Authors Notes: Spring Break is here! I'll be working through a lot of it but that's ok since I don't have to deal with school. The editor is also out on a hiking trip which means two things. The first is that this chapter may have editing/ formatting errors and the second is that I'll be bored throughout Spring Break! It's ok since I have some plans with family and friends. Anyways if you guys couldn't tell I am doing some flashback chapters to the night of the prank to try and make better sense of why Mike would go along with the group to participate. I'll admit the idea I have isn't as good as one written by a really good author that is writing a fantastic story where just Hannah lives, called _Darkest Hour_. The author's name is Enula-Mogitz and I'd recommend giving the story a read. I won't say what the idea used for _Darkest Hour_ having to do with the prank is but I will say that it's really clever and unique and something that I've never read before in this fandom. There are also no new reviews, favoriters, or followers this time around so let's move on to the story. *EDIT* Dear God I just read somewhere that all of the characters are from LA in canon, even though I never read that ANYWHERE on the wiki. Looks like I need to go and edit the last chapter… *Last Edit* I lost access to my laptop for a while so that's why this chapter is so late, I'm sorry guys…

 **365 Days Until Dawn:** Beth instantly realized what the reason was for Chris' earlier tone that was in his voice. The tension between Mike and Emily was palpable as she made her way to the foyerwhere the main action of the party was to occur. By the time she had gotten there Sam, Hannah, Chris, Josh, and her had all made it to the party. Hannah immediately walked up to her and started whispering, no doubt about Mike.

"You feel the tension two… right?" Hannah asked hopefully. She clearly hoped that Emily and Mike were fighting so that she would finally have a chance with Mike. The two had been dating for a while now and while Hannah would never intentionally sabotage a relationship, she certainly couldn't help but hope that the two would finally break up so she could make a move.

"Yeah, it's obvious something is up… but Hannah, just remember that there's no guarantee that Mike will like you back even if they break up." Beth said, trying to be realistic and gentle at the same time. She didn't want to get Hannah's hopes up too much but at the same time didn't want to hurt her and crush her dreams. It was a seriously thin rope she was walking.

"I know that, but it would be nice if I finally had even a small chance!" Hannah said with nothing short of fireworks going off in her eyes.

"Alright well… just be careful. Michael Munroe isn't always the dreamboat you think he is." Beth cautioned.

"Ok Beth, I'll be careful." Hannah said. Beth didn't think Hannah was being necessarily truthful though. With that Beth turned and walked towards Sam, who was talking with Chris.

"And then I jumped out and scared the ever-living God out of her!" Chris finished his story about how he had freaked out Beth earlier with a wicked grin.

"I wasn't that scared, just a bit freaked out is all." Beth said while trying to salvage her pride.

"I'm sure you were very tough about it all, Beth." Sam said with a smile after laughing at Chris' story. Whether or not she was just saying that to make Beth feel better, she wasn't sure.

"You're just saying that Sam…" Beth said teasingly.

"No really! You aren't easy to scare so I'm sure you weren't very scared!" Sam reassured.

"I'm still here you know… actually I gotta go get more… beer! Chris said before running off. 

"Oh yeah it's not like Ashley just showed up or anything..." Sam noted, not without humor.

"When will those two get together?" Beth asked curiously.

"Well Ashley has a fear of rejection and anxiety so she will never make a move and Chris isn't sure she likes him, even if everyone keeps telling him otherwise, so good luck on that front." Sam stated wisely.

"How do you even know all of that?" Beth asked, even more curious then before.

"It's no secret that I'm basically the mom of the group so a lot of people tell me stuff they wouldn't tell others." Sam explained sincerely.

"That makes sense, but who do you tell your secrets too?" Beth inquired.

"I keep it in Beth; I don't need to worry everyone else." Sam said with a hint of sadness in her voice.

Beth frowned before saying "that isn't healthy Sam. I want you to promise me that you'll talk to someone about your problems, otherwise you'll explode one of these days."

"Hmm, ok. But only if you're the one I get to talk to about this stuff. I'm usually pretty bad at talking to people about feelings and stuff, but with you I feel safe." Sam said with a small smile.

"I was kind of hoping you'd say that Sam!" Beth said happily. Sam always managed to make Beth feel like the most important girl in the world when they talk.

 **Meanwhile, In The Mines:** Jack Fiddler felt something that matched happiness for the first time in years. He had finally tracked the Makkapitew to its home in one of the deepest parts of the mines and was going to give it his best shot to take his revenge on it for killing his father all those years ago. Jack had only ever actually seen the Makkapitew once before, on the night it killed his father and caused Jack to train to become a Wendigo hunter. The thing is taller than any other Wendigo and has a traditional Native American headdress on, labeling it as the chief, but other than that it was a fairly normal looking Wendigo. What made the Makkapitew so dangerous in that it was cunning and incredibly intelligent, more so than the other Wendigos in that it is almost impossible to bait it into a trap like with the others, which to Jack has become almost trivial. Rig up some barrels filled with kerosene and a trip wire to activate a spark and bye-bye Wendigo. His father had tried this very same technique and the chief saw right through it and had an underling go in his place to trigger the trap. After that the clan swarmed Jack's father's base of operations, which they had discovered a few hours before. Jack barely got out alive through a trap door while his father stayed behind to hold them off. Jack then heard a large explosion and knew that his father had died to take out as many Wendigos as possible. The chief hadn't even attacked the base then, and instead had chosen to stay back in case another trap was present. Jack had vowed that from that day on he would never rest until he found the creature that had killed his father and put it down, which is what led him to the mines where he was preparing to confront the creature. There was a large entrance way that opened into a dark and eerie underground lake with stalactites hanging menacingly from the ceiling. Jack entered slowly, moving with surprising stealth for being such a big and powerful man with a heavy flamethrower held in his hands with the tanks on his back, his trademark goggles and bandana covering his face to protect him from the flames. He got to the back of the cave that was clearly where the Makkapitew resided, given away by the Native American symbols on the walls and the corpses of its victims hanging on the stalactites via impalement. Jack was then surprised to see that the Makkapitew wasn't here. He frowned, wondering where the chief could possibly be before remembering that tonight was the first night of those damned teenager's party that they had every year. He always made sure to keep a close eye on the lodge during the time that they partied away ignorantly but had forgotten this year in the excitement of finally finding the chief's lair. He immediately turned and ran for the surface, knowing that those teenagers were going to be massacred if the Makkapitew got to them first, and it had a big head start…

"Oh my God I can't believe we're actually going to do this!" Emily said with a giggle.

"Yeah I can't believe you are either. Come on guys this is horrible!" Sam said with her eyes narrowed. Emily, Matt, Jess, Ashley, and Mike were currently plotting on pranking Hannah because of her interest in Mike.

"Guys, maybe this isn't such a good idea…" Mike said hesitantly.

"Don't tell me you're getting cold feet on us babe! You were the one who told me that Hannah likes you." Emily said with a cruel smile.

"Yeah, come on Mike!" Jess encouraged.

"I told you that in confidence Em, come on don't do this…" Mike pleaded.

"Well…" Emily said uncertainly before Jess interrupted.  
"Come on Em we need to teach Hannah a lesson!" Jess said with malice in her voice.

"No one fucks with my best friend!" Jess thought to herself.

"Yeah we are doing this with or without you Mike. Let's go guys." Emily said with her mind made up.

"God damn it I'm gonna regret this…" and Mike followed along, planning on stopping this prank somehow.

"I've gotta find Hannah before this all gets out of control…" Sam muttered to herself before taking off as well.

Beth was currently staring out of the lodge window in the kitchen at the huge snow storm outside. It was the worst it's been in many years and was quite breathtaking. She was also trying to get more into nature since Sam loved it so much.

"Hey Josh, did you see that? Dad said it would just be us this weekend." Before turning and realizing that Josh had passed out, dead drunk. The same could be said for Chris, who was clearly trying to one up Josh.

"Once again brother, you have outdone us all." Beth then walked over to the table and saw a piece of paper…

"Dear Hannah, you look so damn hot in that shirt…

But I bet you look even hotter out of it.

Come to the guest room at 2:00 AM. ;)

At the very bottom was Mike's signature but Beth instantly knew something wasn't right.

"This isn't Mike's handwriting; it looks more like Jess'. That and his signature are all wrong. Something is seriously fishy here… I'm gonna go find Han." Beth said to herself before walking upstairs.

Authors Notes Ending: I think this turned out pretty well but I may just be delusional since it's 5 AM and I haven't slept yet. Have fun guys!


	18. Do We Live In

Chapter 18: Do We Live In

Authors Notes: Hey guys, how's it going? I'm doing pretty decent myself. Work is improving but I'm trying to get a new job since it still sucks. If I can get a job at a video game store that isn't GameStop I'll be very happy regardless of how shitty the managers are. I've also decided to halt all progress on other stories I'm writing so I can focus more on this one as I get more out of it and it's of a lot higher quality than my non completed one- shots. I'm also hoping that these flashback chapters aren't just pointless filler- stalls (which they aren't meant to be as they actually take more effort to write than just continuing the story) and actually help to add more sense to the story and make it a more interesting and fulfilling adventure overall. Now on to follower and favoriter news I actually missed one last time. Don't ask how I just didn't look for it before I published the chapter. So with that being said that means there are actually two followers today including the one I missed last time. Thanks to Ziw and BeautifulApocalypse for following and putting faith into my story and I! Here's the official stuff.

ziw

04-30-2017

BeautifulApocalypse

04-19-2017

As for reviews there are two… officially. This has never happened to me before but one person deleted their review. What I've decided to do is not post that person's review since that person clearly doesn't want it seen since it was deleted but I thank you anyways whoever you are! As for the two reviews still on this side of the Cosmos here they are.

Guest chapter 17 . Apr 28

I can picture that Beth would like Sam that much that she would try to get a load of Sam's interests. And speaking of that story Darkest Hour one part I found hot was when Beth kissed Sam cause who doesn't like to see two girls get it on I know I do

I'm just gonna ignore that second part and respond to the first bit because I don't think it's very professional to talk about if I got off to an intimate scene with two girls (even though my style of writing isn't exactly professional either). I can definitely see Beth liking Sam enough to be her confident in my story and several others I have read but the problem is that in canon we know next to nothing about Beth. For all we know she's straight for fucks sake! Honestly I have no idea what the writer's vision was for Beth and if they wanted her gay or otherwise but since there are no characters that are confirmed to be gay in UD (unless you count the creators stating that they like the Hannah x Sam pairing) it's basically whatever you want it to be. I can't even confirm that the Hannah x Sam thing is true anyways since I remember reading it somewhere but definitely not on Twitter or anything where it would be first hand. If anyone can site a direct source to the actual statement or be able to refute it I'll be very grateful. Anyways this response went really long and went really off topic but its ok let's just move on to the next and last review.

Guest chapter 17 . Apr 29

I can see a good point to how things took place and why they are happening which equals the BUTTERFLY EFFECT

If my initial goal with this story seems to be a success to you then I shall consider that a win! Let's move on to the story. *Edit* There has been four more reviews since the last time I wrote; here they are now:

Guest chapter 17 . Apr 30

I love your story. I also notice how organize your story is now and it's easier to read. I suggest adding line breaks to separate different scenes

Yeah I've definitely been working on organization, formatting, and the like. I appreciate the support but you'll have to explain to me what you mean by "line breaks". Is that where you put lines in between the scenes to indicate a change in scene? In that case I'll start doing that! That's actually an amazing idea!

Revision chapter 17 . May 3

Looks like someone else wants to take the mantle

I'm afraid I don't follow at all Revision… are you talking about the person who recommended the line breaks? Or are you talking about the editor change that occurred a decent while back? Please explain lmao.

Althea Sirius chapter 1 . May 13

THANK YOU! I'm not the only one who thought about this!  
So in this, the Sisters survive? As well as everyone else?

Well… the sisters will certainly survive. That's a total given. Everyone else has a shot at survival but depending on what I choose I may introduce character death. Thanks for reviewing!

Althea Sirius chapter 8 . 3h ago

How 'bout we keep everyone alive. And maybe put some space between expostions?

I try my best, but my story and writing style are both exposition heavy so good luck. Ok now it's actually time to move on to the story!

 **365 Days Until Dawn:** Beth had barely made it 3 steps up the stairs before she heard the guest bedroom door crash open as her twin sister rushed by her in tears.

"Hannah? What's going on?" Beth called after her as she turned to follow her. Hannah had already made it through the foyer and was about to open the door to run outside when the rest of the group, with the exception of Josh and Chris who were still passed out drunk downstairs and Sam who had come running out of Hannah's bedroom, also came running out of the guest bedroom.

"Hannah no! There's a blizzard outside!" Sam called out in desperation as Hannah opened the door to storm out… or tried to. A sudden huge gust of wind pushed the door closed despite Hannah's best efforts. She turned around and sprinted up the stairs into her room, slamming the door behind her. Sam and Beth rushed to her room, trying to convince her to come out, or at least to let them in. The rest of the group stood in the foyer awkwardly as Josh and Chris began to wake up from their drunken stupors.

_ What… what happened?" Chris asked slowly as he rose from the table. He recovered faster than Josh, who was still lying down with his face plastered to the table.

"We uh… played a little prank on Hannah," Jess muttered quietly.

"We?! Whose idea was it in the first place?" Emily demanded in frustration.

"Emily, we all participated; Mike kinda tried to stop it though," Ashley responded. A brief twitch of anger flashed across Josh's face as he was waking up and began to comprehend what had just transpired.

"You guys hurt my sister? Why? Why would you do that?" Josh demanded, trying and failing to conceal the rage that was welling inside him.

"She kept making movies on Em. I just wanted to show that Mike's off limits…" Jess said quietly, in contrast to her normally irreverent and confident personality.

"What happened exactly? What did you guys do?" Chris asked with a sigh. He wasn't quite as angry as Josh but was still extremely disappointed in his friend's foolishness.

"Jess wrote a note saying that Mike wanted to...er... 'see' Hannah in the guest bedroom. She thought it was from him, which was the plan, and Matt recorded the whole fiasco. Mike was hesitant about the whole thing though and I kinda just went along for the ride… sorry Chris," Ashley explained sheepishly.

"Well at least no one got hurt… physically at least." Chris muttered while rubbing his temples. He was trying to understand why in hell his friends thought it was a good idea to prank the most emotionally fragile member of the entire group. Josh, on the other hand, seemed more pissed off than confused.

"So Mike, you didn't want to do this, huh?" Josh asked, trying to get the full story.

"I tried to warn her but she started taking her shirt off before I could get a word in edge wise. I'm really sorry Josh…" Mike muttered, visibly regretful and ashamed of the whole experience.

"No need to apologize, you tried to stop this nonsense. The rest of you, however…" Chris did not need to finish, the disapproving undertone was enough to drive his point.

"Yeah, we're really sorry Josh." Ashley and Matt said in unison.

"I'm sorry but that still doesn't make what Hannah did right." Jess said after an eternity. That leaves…

"Yeah sorry, I guess." Emily finally said. Everyone let out a sigh of relief once Emily apologized, as she was not usually one to rise above and swallow her pride.

Hannah Washington had never felt more betrayed. The one time she felt like she had a chance with the man of her dreams it turned out to be one big façade, put on by who were supposed to be her best friends. At least Mike hadn't fully gone along with the plan; trying to tell her what was going on and all. But it still remained that he had gone into that room and didn't convince the group to stop the "joke," which was enough to leave her royally pissed at everyone. At least she was safe in her room and not out in that snowstorm; she wasn't sure what she was thinking trying to run out there. Wiping tears away from her eyes, she began scanning the room for comfort – she had spent her Christmas breaks there since she could toddle after all. Her bedroom was butterfly themed, befitting of the tattoo she had so aptly gotten to try to woo Mike; a fat load of good that did. She wanted to rip down the picture of Mike and her at one of her tennis matches but decided against it since he had at least tried to stop the prank and she still felt strongly for him. She tried to tone out the bangs on her door from Sam and Beth: she just wanted to be alone for now. Hannah then looked out her window where the snowstorm raged on. It was beautiful, as most storms are. The snow was falling with both grace and power: the wind whipped it to and fro, in cascading spirals, loops, and waves in a kind of dance before it was pressed down into its final resting place. The whole scene was illuminated by the pale silver light of the moon: skating across the accumulated snow and leaping with that which was falling. And everything, Hannah knew, would be still and silent after the storm subsided, covered in a thick layer of soft white powder. Hannah longed for the silence and stillness now, but could have neither as her friends assaulted her doorway and her soul was tormented by its own storm of emotions.

Mike wanted to fix things with everyone immediately, and hoped that he would be able to salvage the group's friendships in doing so. He made his way up towards Hannah's room and saw that Beth and Sam were still trying to get her answer.

"Hey guys…" Mike said in a hollow voice, in great contrast to his normal, charismatic self.

"So, from what we can gather from Josh shouting downstairs it would seem that you tried to warn Hannah about what was going on, but she started taking her top off and everyone came out of hiding right after that." Beth said bluntly, as was her nature.

"Yeah, I'm sorry I couldn't stop this before it began." Mike said in the same hollow voice. He was almost as sad as Hannah was, but for a different reason: Mike was sad because Hannah was sad, and because he couldn't believe that his friends would do something like this.

"Don't be. You tried to warn her, and that's a real decent thing to do Mike." Sam said with a small smile.

"Thanks Sam; that means more than you know. Mind if I give it a go trying to get her to open up?" Mike asked.

"You can try, but she doesn't seem to be in a very talkative mood." Sam said, backing away from the door with Beth.

"I'll try my best." Mike said firmly. He approached the door and gave the lightest tap he possibly could.

"Hannah? Are you alright?" He asked in a whisper. Sam and Beth both gawked as Hannah actually opened the door ever so slightly.

"You can come in Mike, but no one else for right now…" Hannah said quietly. Mike slipped through the crack in the door and entered the room before sitting down on the bed.

"I'm really sorry that I couldn't stop them in time Hannah." Mike said, somewhat downtrodden.

Editor's Notes – Ending: Stardate 95011.629: Again, KLil leaves us without an ending and calls it a cliffhanger. Also sorry for the delay and I actually am partially responsible as KLil sent it to me at Stardate 94983.6769 and I've just been sitting on it with little excuse. Hopefully though he'll be able to write more often as he's about to go on summer break so y'all don't get fanfiction withdrawal. Quick Update (Of the Editor's notes from Chapter 15): I passed Calculus but I'm going to Northeastern, not Wentworth so it doesn't matter. Also I never wrote the research paper but I did get all the necessary work in on time and did well last quarter (and this quarter). Like the details about the storm? I added that because I love writing descriptions of nature. I could probably do freeverse poetry about it but that's not who I am. Who am I, you ask? The answer is simple: I'm – AFROKID538

Chapters Notes Ending: The Until Dawn fandom may be dying, but this story isn't. I intend to finish it and hopefully will do so. I hope you guys enjoy this next chapter in "When Darkness Turns to Light". (Until We Meet Again is fantastic and you should read it.)


	19. Renewal

Chapter 19: Renewal

Authors Notes: Well, I graduated high school. That's always fun I suppose but I don't really know how I feel about it. I'm certainly not sad since I hate taking classes that aren't necessary to everyday life but I'm not overly happy about it either since I won't see a lot of good people I met during my time there again. I've also never been one to like endings but that's ok. As far as the story goes I haven't touched it since before graduating so I may be a little rusty but that's ok, that just means that I have to work twice as hard to give you all the content I promised at the end of the last chapter. With that all being said, let's move onto the reviews, of which I believe we have four today.

Bookreader525 chapter 18. May 30

Thanks for the shout out again! I really appreciate it :) Awesome chapter!

Of course and thank you! I try my best even though I know that my writing style is weird and confusing to follow so it makes me happy knowing that you liked it!

Kenuzuki123 chapter 18. May 31

I'm really liking your story so keep it up! I like how you've made the recent chapters as sort of flashbacks that correlate and link up to certain things that happened so far. I'm happy that Beth and Hannah survive here since I found it sad that we couldn't really understand their characters well at all before their death at the beginning of the game.

I will certainly try my best to keep the chapters coming Kenuzuki! I was hoping that the flashback chapters would provide insight to the events of the story even if they are kind of boring… As for Hannah and Beth I have always hated that canon didn't provide some sort of context to Beth's character and let us see more of Hannah since Hannah is a prime example of my all- time favorite character trope, which is the hopelessly in love girl that (in my story) grows to become more independent while still being dedicated to her love and friends. Naturally in canon she never is given the chance to grow which is kind of a bummer but that's ok since that's what this story is for!

Revision chapter 18. Jun 1

Mostly the reviewer but yes you got it right I get that my choice of words can be hard to understand but I'm only trying to sound intelligent, but that does not mean that I am a grammar Nazi

It's all good Revision; I always appreciate and have appreciated your insight as it helps my story to grow into something great! Let's get onto the story which finally gets back to the main story.

 **365 Days Until Dawn:** Mike fumbled over an apology, but Hannah could tell it was sincere. After his voice trailed off they stared at each other in a strange silence for about a minute before Hannah ran into his arms.

"It wasn't your fault, Mike…" Hannah whispered into his ear with tears cascading down her face.

"I know, but I can't help feeling like I could have done more;" Mike whispered as his voice cracked: full of regret.

 **7 Hours Until Dawn:** Josh was still staring out the window of the lodge when he jumped up suddenly - he could barely make out a bright blonde head of hair through the darkness and snow…

"Josh? Where are you going?" Emily asked as Josh rushed to the door.

"I think I can see someone!" Josh yelled as he ran out the door.

"Jessica? Oh God! What happened?" Josh asked frantically, fear breaking his voice as he saw the beautiful girl slumped over Sam: the both of them struggling to stay upright.

"Huh? Jess is back?" Mike asked nervously as he poked his head through the door.

"We got jumped twice; once on the way to the radio tower and the other on the way back. The entire _damn_ thing was knocked over. Jess' side got _fucked up_ by one of the Wendigos' claws when we were walking back. She's in pretty bad shape," Ashley said - she wasn't in too good of shape herself.

"Will she be ok?" Hannah asked as joined her friends outside.

"I don't know but we should see if Jack knows what to do," Sam said as she tried to catch her breath. Having anyone lean on you for support is never exactly easy.

"Jack was out looking for you! He isn't back yet. Oh God," began Hannah.

 **365 Days Until Dawn:**

Hannah and Mike were interlocked in a tight embrace: driven by their raised emotions and need for something, someone to take comfort in amidst all the turmoil of late. They stood there for what seemed like an eternity – and for the fleeting moment, everything was perfect. They soon, however, realized that they had to return to the world of the living, so Mike took a deep breath before whispering…

"I hope one day we can make this work. I haven't been happy with Emily for some time now."

"Maybe in the future, but for now let me enjoy this moment." Hannah whispered back. She felt better than she had in hours, since before the prank had occurred. Mike was always able to bring out the best in Hannah, even when she was at her worst.

Everyone stared in shock as Hannah and Mike left her bedroom together. They were not holding hands but everyone could tell that something big had happened between the two since he went in. Josh was happy that Hannah was feeling better and even managed to forget for a few seconds just how mad he was at Emily and Jess, and to a lesser extent Matt and Ashley. Speaking of whom….

"So are you two an item now?" Jess asked, the irony tangible within her voice given that the whole point of the prank was to keep Mike in Emily's hands and out of Hannah's.

"We… aren't anything right now. I think we both just want to stay single for a while. Also… fuck you Jess," Hannah finished triumphantly before going into the kitchen with Sam and Beth right behind her leaving Jess incredulous and Mike looking slightly amused. At that point, Emily walked up to Mike to initiate a conversation.

"Hey…" Emily started.

"We're done Emily. Not even that, we've been done. We have been drifting apart all year and it was only a matter of time. I just wish that you wouldn't have agreed to something so drastic to try to force us to stay together," Mike stated with an air of finality.

"Yeah, hopefully we can try to stay friends though. We were friends way before we started dating, and I just hope this doesn't ruin everything," Emily said with sadness in her voice.

"We can try. Hopefully one day we can go back to where we were before all of this dating nonsense," Mike said before leaving to talk with Chris. 

Chapters Notes Ending: There was a lot of jumping back and forth with this one but hopefully you all can follow it well. I hope you enjoy!

Editor's Notes – Ending: Stardate 95082.886: This one was a fun one. Not only because it interrupted a Terraria session but also because I actually got to be on a voice chat with KLil so I could update him in real-time: complete with distractions and tangents! In actuality though, since I was able to walk him through my thinking process I was able to include/edit some details that I think added a lot to it. – AFROKID538


	20. Devourer

Chapter 20: Devour

Authors Notes: Alright so I've been reading a lot of fanfictions lately and it's making me feel inspired! Also there's this really weird editing thing where every time I tab an arrow shows up and every time I hit enter a bizarre symbol appears as well. If anyone has any ideas as to how to make these stop I'd greatly appreciate it. On to the reviews, of which we have one!

Guest chapter 19 . Jun 25

What a touching moment

I'm afraid I don't fully understand which moment you're talking about! The one where Hannah and Mike embrace? If so I completely agree!

 **7 Hours Until Dawn:** Everything seemed to be going in slow motion for Jessica. She was completely disoriented but was sure of one thing: everything _hurt_. She vaguely remembered getting attacked by… something, but it didn't seem like it could be real. [Could something that hideous and evil exist?] This question and the attack – or what she remembered of it – were echoing through her head as she started to become aware of her surroundings. She noticed that there were a lot of people talking around her, and she struggled to make out what they were saying right before everything faded to black…

Mike and Emily were terrified of the idea that Jessica could die, and both were on the verge of shock by this point. The huge gash along her left side was larger and deeper than they'd originally realized. The entire group had moved her to the kitchen table and laid her on it while Sam struggled to get her jacket off to see the damage. No one was trained medically and everyone was collectively floundering on deciding what to do until Josh came up with an idea.

"I'm going to find that guy… Jack I think his name is," Josh said with an anxious glance at Jessica.

"If you're going, I'm coming with you," Sam said immediately.

"Same here, it's safer with numbers," Beth followed up, having seen enough of her father's horror movies to know what happens when a group of teens split up with monsters on the loose.

"I'll go as well," Hannah said while never taking her eyes off of Mike. An unspoken agreement seemed to be exchanged between the two.

"I'll stay here and watch over Jess, the rest of you should go," Mike declared.

"That's idiotic. What if the Wendigo comes back?" Emily debated ferociously, not wanting to see another friend of hers hurt in all of this chaos.

"Ashley and I could stay here as well, would that help?" Chris asked, trying to solve the issue without conflict.

"That still leaves the issue of us all being split up again," Matt noted.

"Ok. How about this: we stash Jessica in a guest bedroom with a rifle from the gun safe down stairs, alone," Sam negotiated.

"Fine, but if anything happens to her I'll never forgive any of you," Mike said angrily. With that, they all went to work lifting Jessica into the guest bedroom and onto the bed after patching her up with bandages from a first aid kit in the kitchen as best they could. They really only had gauze and painkillers but it was better than nothing. Mike was slightly worried since their treatment did nothing against potential infection, internal bleeding or potential broken ribs but, again, it was all they had. They laid the rifle next to her (safety on) and prepped for a long trek through the blizzard outside. They all bundled up with clothes they had packed for the weekend and set out. Mike, Chris, and Matt all had grabbed rifles from the gun safe, but unfortunately that was where their gun reserves ran out.

"I wish I had some kind of protection, it would make me feel better," Josh muttered.

"Sorry Josh, but Matt and I have both been hunting before and Chris has shot at that gun range at the bottom of the cable car station ever since we first started coming up here," Mike said casually as he finished loading the rifle.

"This is _so cliché_ , the men having the guns and the women having nothing at all to protect themselves," Emily said, somewhat frustrated. She had a sour look on her face before Matt pulled out a Ka-bar knife and held it before her, blade forwards.

"Why do you have an army knife?" Emily asked nervously.

"Actually it's a Marine Corps knife – and a guy's always got to be prepared. We're in the woods for God's sake." Matt said before Emily gingerly took the blade.

"Thanks, Matt."

"No problem. Let's move out, guys." The group then took off to find the man who had saved their lives before, and would likely do so again.

Jack was in a _hell_ of a pickle. Not long after leaving his ragtag group of teenage monster fighters he found himself back in the mines, having been chased from what he could only assume was the spot where the girls had been jumped given the sizable pool of blood and faint blood trail leading in the direction of their cabin. This alone wouldn't be too much of a problem if the place _wasn't_ crawling with Wendigos, but as it stood there were a _lot_ of the bastards to deal with. He managed to take out a couple with his handy-dandy flamethrower but was quickly forced to barricade himself in one of his old safe zones due to their sheer numbers; which was fine and all except that he was presently trapped there. He _had_ cameras rigged up all over the place… but by this point all of them were destroyed. He briefly though about replacing them but going into town was usually something he avoided unless absolutely necessary.

"Come on Jack, _think!_ … how do I get out of this," He muttered to himself as the Wendigos outside pounded on his door. But for all of his knowledge of Wendigos he didn't see a way that he could break out of his little compound and keep his head. There was only one door out and the Wendigos had it surrounded. The only option was busting out and lighting up everything in his path, but of course there was more than a good chance that he would be overwhelmed and inevitably beheaded. [Oh the joys of being a professional Wendigo hunter,] he thought to himself…

"Where do you think Jack is anyways?" Sam asked. No sooner had they gotten out of the door than they realized they had no idea where to go look.

"He said he went looking for you guys. Maybe we should check the spot where you guys got jumped?" Emily suggested – an air of authority in her voice.

"You want us to go _BACK_ to where the Wendigos were last seen? Are you nuts?!" Ashley asked, visibly distressed at the idea of seeing the Wendigos again.

"Look. It's the only lead we have. I get that it's dangerous but we need to find Jack if we want to have any hope of getting out of here alive," Emily defended uncharacteristically calmly.

"I'm with Ash: it's too dangerous to go back to where we last saw those monsters," Chris stated firmly.

"We should _NOT_ be taking sides on this!" Sam said, trying to regain order.

"Well we have to vote or something, right?" Josh muttered, having been remarkably reserved as of late.

"Alright. All in favor of going back to where we think Jack would be?" Hannah asked. With that, Emily, Mike, Matt, Hannah, and Sam raised their hands.

"Great, we lost." Beth muttered, defeated.

"No you didn't, because I vote _against_ that." Jess said with as much confidence as she could muster in her severely weakened state, having limped downstairs and outside just in time to give her opinion.

"So it's a tie…" Hannah and Beth muttered simultaneously…

Chapter Notes Ending: This took way longer than it should have and for that I apologize. Have a great day everyone!

Editor's Notes – Ending: Stardate 95230.334: I've observed that KLil has a tendency to suddenly switch to present tense when he's talking about Jack, which is weird. Nothing too wrong with this one, just fixed/improved some phrasing. At least we got to use the monologue designation again, though.


	21. If You Only Knew

Chapter 21: If You Only Knew

Authors Notes: Alrighty so let's get back into the swing of things here with no new reviews. That's a total bummer but it's ok, I can't always expect you guys to drop everything to leave a review on my shitty writing. Other than that we DO have new followers and favoriters so thanks to all who did that! These are the followers.

MattQ1

07-11-2017

sailor-starlight101

07-17-2017

kenuzuki123

05-30-2017

Aloasa

06-11-2017

AnimeGamerGirl23

05-31-2017

I may have accidentally repeated one or two of you guys but I'm fairly sure that I didn't miss anyone. If I did just pm me and I'll get that sorted. Here are the favoriters.

AnimeGamerGirl23

05-31-2017

sailor-starlight101

07-17-2017

Althea Sirius

05-14-2017

kenuzuki123

05-30-2017

The same applies here. If I missed anyone please just pm me so I can fix it. I'd feel really bad otherwise! Now, without further ado, here's "If You Only Knew".

 **6 Hours Until Dawn:** "Jess, you should really be in bed…" Mike said, concerned for her.

"I'm not going to lie and say I feel great or anything but I _can't_ watch you all run off and get yourselves killed."

"We're not going to die, Jess. The Wendigos probably cleared out from there a while ago anyways," Sam reassured, trying to reason with her.

"Sam, can you tell me with certainty that none of you will get hurt looking for that strange guy?"

Sam hesitated before muttering, "I guess not; but he saved our lives and that means we should try and save him. It's that simple."

"This back-and-forth isn't getting us anywhere. How about the half that voted to go takes off for the spot and the others stay here?" Matt suggested impatiently.

"Again, haven't any of you seen a horror movie? Splitting up is, like, horror 101 to getting killed." Josh tossed out.

"True, but the longer we sit here, the longer Jack is stuck out there with those monsters. I'm going regardless of what you guys say," Mike said impulsively before marching out the door.

"I'm going with you Mike. The rest of you can stay if you want," Sam said stubbornly.

"He saved my life. I'm coming," Emily said sternly.

"I'm with Em," Matt said before smiling at her.

"If Mike's going than I am as well," Hannah said lightly.

"I'm not leaving my sister alone again," Josh and Beth said in unison.

"I can't really make it far like this… Good luck you guys," Jess said sadly.

"Chris and I will stay here to protect Jess," Ashley said, partially for the sake of sticking to her guns and partially because she was terrified at the thought of running into the Wendigos again.

"That settles it. Let's go, guys."

With that, everyone but Chris, Ashley, and Jessica took off for the path to the radio tower where they figured Jack would be.

"Ok, in three… two… one, GO!" Jack yelled out before busting out of his surrogate home – more like a prison - through the front door and was all but prepared for the fight of his life.

It certainly didn't disappoint, as all Jack could see in the darkness of the mines was the Wendigos' disgusting faces lit by the blaze of his flamethrower as he began laying waste to creature after creature that was in his path. One climbed onto the ceiling and lept at him before he could torch it in time and cut his cheek deeply, and another crawled low along the floor and lunged up at him, leaving a sizable gash along his leg. The both of the injuries were caused by the Wendigos' wicked claws, to say nothing of their sharp, jagged, rotting jaws. In spite of his injuries, Jack was winning in his fight against them. The inferno his weapon produced was too much for the Wendigos to handle, and he had managed to get a good portion of the 30 or so to either retreat or to burn. Those that remained were being forced back as he slowly edged towards the entrance, which was through the ceiling - a good 50 feet away. Where he was headed, he would have to climb up a snow drift that had caved in a section of the mines not far from where the girls had been jumped before he realized that to do so; he'd need to hoist his flamethrower onto his back as it took both his hands to climb up the snow drift. He quickly realized he'd be defenseless to the Wendigos if he were to attempt an escape. He also knew that he couldn't keep the flames up forever, as his fuel reserves were rapidly depleting regardless of the fact that he had refilled in his hideout before running out. He had but one choice: kill every Wendigo before making his escape or die trying. He then wheeled around and charged back towards the remaining beasts with his flames still spilling out in front of him. His crazy plan seemed to be working, albeit only because of shock value and dumb luck since the Wendigos didn't expect him to suddenly go on the offensive, nor had they expected him to break out of his only protection against them earlier. Wendigo upon Wendigo fell before him as the stink of human flesh - the Wendigos were still technically human bodies - filled the mines while Jack and the Wendigos' battle carried on into the night.

The group of teenagers had arrived at the site where the girls had been jumped: a clearing in the path through the woods only a few hundred feet from the radio tower… at least where the radio tower should've been.

"Uh, guys, shouldn't we have been able to see the radio tower over the trees by now?" Mike noted, concerned.

"We _definitely_ saw it from here the last time. What the hell…?" Beth muttered.

"Maybe the Wendigos knocked it over? It's only suspended by some cables and some wooden support beams right?" Sam suggested.

"That would be _really_ bad. But wouldn't we have heard something like that from the lodge?" Josh asked.

"The wind has been loud enough that it's possible we couldn't have heard it over the howling," Hannah noted.

"Wait… do you guys hear that?" Emily asked, concern lacing her voice in a very uncharacteristic manner…

Authors Notes Ending: Yay I finished it. I've been much uninspired lately so I wrote this whole thing in one sitting except for the very beginning. Thanks for reading!

Editor's Notes: Ending: Stardate 95310.978: As predicted, this fanfiction has followed me into college. So that's great. At least I don't have to mail the edited version back 365 miles to home for Klil to then distribute by... chain mail maybe? I don't know. – AFROKID538


	22. Abyss

Chapter 22: Abyss

Authors Notes: It has been a hot minute my friends. I apologize but college and personal issues have greatly decreased my ability to write. With that being said, let's move on to the favorites and follows.

Favorites:

4gnez

10-01-2017

Althea Sirius

05-14-2017

AnimeGamerGirl23

05-31-2017

DonteGrell

08-28-2017

Jomar857

01-29-2017

NightStarRetaliation

08-24-2017

OverlyObsessiveWriter

10-16-2016

Poptarts1121

11-08-2016

Stak9000

03-30-2017

TheOneAndOnlyNumber1

12-31-2016

boo56

12-22-2016

kenuzuki123

05-30-2017

kingvlad2011

03-28-2017

sailor-starlight101

07-17-2017

sophiXon

01-10-2017

Follows:

Aloasa

06-11-2017

AnimeGamerGirl23

05-31-2017

BeautifulApocalypse

04-19-2017

Bookreader525

02-01-2017

DonteGrell

08-28-2017

Irene Mak

08-29-2017

MattQ1

07-11-2017

NightStarRetaliation

08-24-2017

RikuDarkheart98

09-22-2017

Stak9000

03-30-2017

TheOneAndOnlyNumber1

12-31-2016

akoslows

11-29-2016

boo56

12-22-2016

kenuzuki123

05-30-2017

kingvlad2011

03-28-2017

sailor-starlight101

07-17-2017

sophiXon

01-10-2017

ziw

04-30-2017

With that out of the way let's move onto the reviews.

Reviews:

A13x chapter 21 . Sep 18

That was so beautiful seeing them all volunteer like that especially Hannah and damn I like and hate cliffhangers but can't wait to what has Emily so spooked

Me:

It could be anything really ;) I appreciate your review, thank you!

Guest chapter 21 . Sep 30

Damn Jack is certainly a badass cause he's fighting overwhelming and overpowering odds with little to no chance of success

Me:

Well Jack has been doing this for a long time! If anyone can take on a room full of wendigos it's him I think.

Guest chapter 21 . Oct 14

They've only been dating for a few hours and I can already tell Hannah is committed

Me:

That was my idea haha. I figured if Hannah ever did get with Mike she'd definitely be committed to the relationship!

Althea Sirius chapter 9 . Oct 19

The dialogue is more scrunched together than before.

Me:

You're one hundred percent right! I went back and fixed it and appreciate you telling me!

Ok that was the last of the reviews! With all of that out of the way I am proud to introduce the next chapter of "When Darkness Turns to Light".

 **5 Hours Until Dawn:** The thing that had Emily so spooked was that she had gotten a glimpse of a wendigo running through the woods to the left of the clearing. The interesting thing was that it wasn't moving _towards_ them, instead moving somewhere deeper into the woods.

"You guys, I just saw a wendigo." Emily whispered as quietly as she could over the sound of the ever increasing wind.

"Aw fuck me. Where is it?" Mike asked through grit teeth.

"I don't know. It didn't come towards us. It went somewhere deeper into the woods." Emily responded.

"Is it possible that it was heading towards Jack?" Sam asked, as helpful as she always is.

"God I hope not… but if I were a betting man I'd say yes." Matt admitted.

"We have to follow it." Sam determined before moving deeper into the woods.

"I was afraid you'd say that." Josh muttered. The rest of the group quickly followed suit.

Jack had managed to fend off the wendigos through a combination of sheer luck and years of experience but as he approached the cave in he realized something really bad. First of all, the cave in was caused by a massive structure having fallen into the mines, having taken a large portion of the ceiling along with it. Jack had managed to shimmy along the edge of the now massive hole that went remarkably deep due to the structure's collapse. He assumed it was the radio tower since it was the only thing big enough to make that much damage. Once he'd gotten to the far edge of the hole he realized that the cave in was far steeper than he'd initially thought. It was more like a cliff face than anything else. As he stared up and felt that his luck couldn't possibly get any worse, he saw a face…

Sam and the rest of the posse had followed the wendigo and it had led them to the mines, albeit to an area none of them have been to before. This meant that once the creature had run off deeper into the unfamiliar territory the teenagers quickly found themselves lost and confused.

"Does anyone have any ideas? We're sitting ducks out here." Mike noted.  
"Maybe the wendigo was going to meet up with the rest of its pack? Beth suggested, trying to spitball ideas.

"That's a good point but what would they be trying to do all together like that…" Hannah observed, even quitter than normal due to her nervousness at being heard by the creatures.

"They've probably found Jack and want every one of them together to fight him." Mike stated with the sound of confidence that was all too familiar for the group.

"He can't be THAT good can he? Matt asked skeptically.

"He's been doing this for a long time and he has the only weapon on this entire mountain that can actually kill the things." Sam reminded.

"Either way he can't hold out forever against all of these things. Let's get moving." Josh said, taking a leadership role more reminiscent of his earlier days when he was organizing parties than his role in recent years.

Authors Notes Ending: This chapter was fairly short but I wanted to get it posted quickly since I feel bad about slacking so much. You guys deserve better.


	23. One Eighty Two

Chapter 23: One Eighty Two

Authors Notes: So I've been playing a lot of Pokémon lately. I've always loved it but in recent days it's been a lot of what I've found myself doing, more so than anything else. Anyways we have no new followers or favoriters today (as far as I know at least) but if I missed someone please pm me and I'll get that sorted. We do however have two new reviews so let's get into that business.

Reviews:

Guest chapter 22 . Nov 12

That's OK I understand as long as you keep chapters coming I ain't complaining. Cause I want to see how this ends with the police interrogations and possibly years later epilogue and all that s*** because that's what make stories so good

Me:

Don't worry I have no intentions of abandoning this story. My other current story (And Then There Was Dawn) has fallen to the backburner but this one and the one shots are still coming in steady supply.

josephguy217 chapter 22 . 6h ago

Awesome chapter keep up the good work :)

Me:

Hey thanks man! I really appreciate it, seeing positive reinforcement really inspires me.

Alright that was it! With all of that out of the way here's the newest chapter!

*Edit* I know it's been quite a few months but I nearly abandoned writing because it had always been a way for me to focus on something specific and after I'd started taking ADD pills I was able to focus quite a lot better and as such writing wasn't needed anymore. The only reason I came back at all is because I felt bad about abandoning this specific story since it was my first and I really want to see it finished. I'll be sure to read through all of the new favorites, follows, and reviews in the next chapter but for now let's get to the long awaited next chapter. With that out of the way here's to chapter 23, and to many more.

 **5 Hours Until Dawn:** Jack was out of breath, which was nothing new. What _was_ new was that his flamethrower had run out of fuel and he was sprinting for his fucking life. He'd managed to find an elevator shaft which took him to the surface, but he could hear that the Wendigos were climbing up after him; and they were _quickly_ gaining. While Jack knew all the tips and tricks to avoid Wendigos, since outrunning them was never an option, there was only so much he could do when hauling ass through the woods alone. As different potential outcomes flashed through his mind, one of the Wendigos grabbed at his leg, but was unable to grip it completely. Jack was sent tumbling to the ground, briefly rolling down a hill before landing at the bottom; completely spent but determined to keep going. Unfortunately, the last of the Wendigos didn't give him that option so he closed his eyes, certain that death was about to take him. At that moment, a sharp crack split through the howling of the wind.

Matt had shot at a range before but never at anything living and _certainly_ not at anything that even remotely resembled a human; so when the bolt action rifle kicked back against his shoulder he shuddered in a mixture of shock and exhilaration as the Wendigo that was about to bury its teeth in Jack's neck was sent stumbling backwards before slamming into one of the nearby trees. Jack opened his eyes in shock before the most real smile he'd had in years graced his soot-and-snow-covered face. He immediately got up and started moving quickly towards his savior.

"Thanks err… Matt, right? Regardless of your name you saved my life, so thanks." Jack said, his smile not dimming.

"Where's the rest of your friends anyway?"

"They're back along the, uh, path. We've been looking for you for quite a bit of time now." Matt responded, still shaking from the adrenaline rush of shooting the Wendigo.

"Well let's get moving in that direction. I took out a lot of the Wendigos but without more gasoline I can't fuel my flamethrower, so we're stuck with the rest of them until I can get more.

"There's gas back at the lodge. We use it for the backup generators." Matt contributed.

"That's really good. My hideout is much further than the lodge from here. Why were you off on your own anyways?" Jack inquired.

"I decided to follow one of those… Wendigos since I figured they might lead me to you and the rest of the gang didn't want to leave the main path."

"Well that was really dangerous and risky and honestly a bit stupid, but I can't complain since you saved my life." Jack responded. Matt couldn't help but notice that Jack seemed to be unusually chatty but he figured it was nerves. That was when they heard the pounding footsteps…

Authors Notes Ending: Nothing much to say here. I'm sorry for the ludicrous wait and I'll try and do better.

Editor's Notes: Ending: Stardate 95939.215: Oh, it's you. It's been a long time. How have you been. I've been really busy being dead. You know, after this story MURDERED ME. Violence and references aside, it has been the largest editing hiatus since before I first edited, so maybe you could settle for that and we'll just call it a day. Regardless, I was able to put in the proper amount of time to edit this chapter so there should be way fewer glaring errors than Chapter 22. – AFROKID538


End file.
